When I came to Zhanli Village, Gaozeng Town, Congjiang County, Guizhou Province, I witnessed a great miracle in my country. In the 48 years from 1952 to 2000, the population of this place only increased by 9 people. The reason why they can control population growth is largely because 98% of families have only two children, one boy and one girl. Such a balanced birth satisfaction rate between men and women is amazing.


Online information: The ancestors of the Zhanli people fled from Jiangsu in 1368, and finally settled here after a long journey. The ancestors understood the truth very early on that "if there is a nest of sparrows in a tree, one more nest will starve", so the birth control regulations have been followed down, and no one has violated it so far. It is also said that the secret recipe of herbal medicine invented by Zhanli's ancestors to control the birth of boys and girls - changing flowers and plants, played a vital role in this.

We only visited Zhanli Dong Village for an hour and a half. When I met a few women chatting along the way, I asked: "How many children do you have? Are they a boy and a girl?" What kind of plant is the ancestral secret recipe "changing flowers and plants" I will find out next time.

Zhanli Primary School

The students in Zhanli were all barefoot, and their shoes were downstairs. It was cold, and most of them were still wearing plastic slippers.

Zhanli Drum Tower is in the shape of a regular hexagon in plane, and its facade is 13-story dense eaves and single-story pointed roof, with a total height of 18 meters.

There is a huge brazier in the middle of the Drum Tower. The weather is getting colder and the fire is very hot. Everyone sits around to keep warm and chat together. There is also a TV in the Drum Tower. Local programs attract the attention of many old people.


People in Zhanli live a long life, and people over the age of 90 have been very common in the village for hundreds of years. I think that a son and a daughter in the family will not be burdened by life, and a good living environment is a sufficient reason for a healthy and long life. It is difficult to read the meaning of the weather-beaten words from their faces, and the leisurely and self-satisfied words are revealed in the brows of the old people.


Zhanli Dong Village is located in the embrace of mountains, deep mountains and dense forests are layered with greenery, gurgling water flows in front of the gates of the villages, and golden glutinous rice is hung on the ten-meter-high grain corridor by the small river. Passing through the small path, the smell of pickled fish and glutinous rice from the cracks of the wooden buildings on both sides is tangy.

The people of Zhanli Dong Village in Gaozeng Town, Congjiang County won the battle against poverty together with the people of the whole country. (Wu Qiang, author of Jinmen.com)