Dragon and Tiger Network News (Reporter, Qin Yao) Hengshan’s mountains are lush, Hengshan’s springs are sweet and delicious, and Hengshan’s villagers are simple and kind… When it comes to Hengshan Village, Hengxi Street, Jiangning District, Min Jincheng, a "post-80s generation", can’t hide his smile, as if he has opened a chatterbox. Today, Min Jincheng runs a small Min family homestay in his hometown, works in Nanjing City on weekdays, and invests in the operation and maintenance of homestays on weekends and other spare time. He has become a "new farmer" in the "half-city, half-township" lifestyle, seeking harmony between landscape villages and urban life.
"Return to the Goose" feeds back to the hometown, and gets a leisurely place
You can only know your hometown when you travel far, and you think about your homesickness day and night. In 2004, after Min Jincheng left home, he started a "North Drift" life, and everything about his hometown affected Min Jincheng’s heart. "Not long after arriving in Beijing, I found that I was very homesick, and it was difficult to give up that place in the mountains. The mountains and rivers at home were not enough every time I went back."
The idea of going home and opening a homestay gradually "germinated": During his life abroad, Min Jincheng met various forms of homestays during his travels. The owner of the homestay posted photos with guests from all over the world on the wall, and often chatted with guests about the past and the future. He was deeply attracted by such scenes.
In 2016, Hengshan Village became "popular" because of the first Hengshan Hiking Conference, and Min Jincheng’s plan to build a homestay officially began. From 2017 to 2021, Min Jincheng used his spare time to renovate and decorate the house in his hometown, painting hard decoration, room layout, soft decoration design, courtyard renovation, green plant maintenance… Xiao Min’s homestay is becoming more and more formed, and it will be officially open to the public in May 2023.
Nowadays, this homestay hidden in Hengshan Village attracts many people. The homestay consists of two houses with close proximity and white walls and black tiles. The door is opened to a four-sided courtyard full of green plants and garden landscapes. The backyard has created a cool lake viewing platform. The upper floors of the building can watch the sunrise and sunset by the Panlong Lake from a distance.
Turn your love into a career and encounter the "yearning life"
Min Jincheng, who has been fond of painting and writing since childhood and is a professional in advertising design, has injected a lot of ingenuity into the construction of the homestay. The room is themed with spring plowing, summer rain, autumn harvest, and winter sun, which means seeing the beauty of the four seasons in Hengshan; using large oil drums to make a firewood stove for guests to warm up while drinking tea and chatting; the wall of the activity room is pasted with personal brushes and calligraphy, and the counter is placed with a sense of age. Tape and vinyl; design and plan alone, use sand and stones in the courtyard to create a "dry landscape" garden landscape…
It is Min Jincheng’s dream to transform the house in his hometown into a unique homestay. Along the way, he is like the owner of a mountain hut, entertaining guests from afar at home with sincere sincerity and love. In order to bring rich interactive experience to the parent-child group, Min Jincheng led the children to write, paint and do handicrafts on weekends, and also went to Jingdezhen to learn porcelain making. In the homestay, he carried out pottery experience and blue and white porcelain painting activities.
One side is life, the other is love. Min Jincheng, who runs both cities and villages, is mainly responsible for the planning and operation of the homestay, while his parents help with hygiene and cooking farm dishes. When referring to the tricky aspects of the "half city, half village" lifestyle, Min Jincheng said: "Personal time is relatively tight, such as holding a birthday party for guests on weekends, and the preparation of materials and food will be rushed."
Let "B & B +" become the norm, roaming "poetry and distance"
Big poplar hand-brewed coffee, blue and white porcelain pottery experience, mountain tavern, homestay steamed rice cake, mountain riding… The rich "homestay +" format has allowed Xiao Min’s homestay to gain a lot of "fans". In his spare time, Min Jincheng invested in the renovation of the homestay. Later, he will optimize and transform the kitchen, old house, and outdoor area, and install more functional layouts.
"At present, the main guest group of the homestay is parent-child families, and we also look forward to more’post-90s’ and’post-00s’ groups coming to stay. We are very willing to listen to their voices so that the homestay can be continuously optimized," Min Jincheng said frankly. It is Min Jincheng’s wish to let visitors from afar temporarily stay away from the chaos of city life, feel the tranquility and comfort of the mountains and rivers, and enjoy the fun of the play experience to the fullest, and it is also the future road of Xiaomin’s homestay.
Nowadays, more and more homestays rely on the characteristic business forms to frequently "go out of the circle". Hengshan Village, where Xiaomin Family Homestay is located, is backed by the "highest peak" of Jiangning, and is surrounded by the "largest lake" of Jiangning, Panlong Lake. Hengshan Village has been committed to developing rural vacation leisure and health tourism based on its superior mountain and water resources in recent years. Special projects such as the "Heart of Hengshan" red search activity and the "Mountain Bubble" activity have been carried out one after another, which has made the village more tourists, the roads are spacious, and the farmyard is lively. A picture of rural revitalization is slowly unfolding, and the "new farmers" are striding forward on the "Xingnong Road" in Hengshan Village.
As a "new farmer", Min Jincheng "returned home" and used his talents in the hot land of the countryside to turn Xiaomin’s homestay into a gathering place for visitors from afar, so that the happiness and ritual of life can quietly occur here, and he can find peace and tranquility in the natural landscape.
