Introduction to Rural Tourism in Yujiagou Village

Yujiagou Village is located 15km northeast of Liulin county seat, only 3km away from the 307 National Highway, and more than 10 kilometers away from the downtown area of Lvliang. Over 500 people in the village are with the same family name of Yu.

Yujiagou was the ancestral home of Yu Chenlong, who was praised by Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty as "the most upright official in China". As early as in the Yuan Dynasty, Yu's ancestors began to live here. In the Ming Dynasty, a group of capable officials represented by Yuyuan Chief of Lushi County in Henan Province and governor Yu Tan were born here. There are still many historical relics in the village, such as ancient temples, Yu's ancestral residence and handicraft workshop from the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and the folk traditional culture, such as sacrifice of fish and dragon, Wenchang Yangge, etc.

The whole village of Yujiagou is a typical landform of " valley seating between two mountains ". All the dwellings are distributed in step shape along the ancient river course and mainly fall on the hillside on the sunny side of the river. For hundreds of millions of years, because of the water current, strange river valleys and peculiar mountain topography have been formed, such as godfish stone, dragon stone, sky stamp, etc. The legends about these strange peaks and peculiar stones in the village have added many mysterious charms to the ancient village. The east of the village is the state-owned natural forest protection zone, where peaks and valleys converge, grass and trees are lush and the birds twittering. The ancient road connecting the village and Anguo Temple, that Yu Chenglong had traveled on is within the forest. 

Yujiagou has convenient traffic and perfect tourism infrastructure. In recent years, it has built a new rural tourism road from the 307 National Highway to the village and a cycling track based on the natural mountain terrain. Quite a few cycling competitions had been successfully held during the past a few years. The newly built four Spring-water Supplement Leakage Dams with an average height of more than 20 meters can not only form the waterfall landscape but also facilitate the water amusement project.

Thanks for the original 50,000-mu state-owned forest farm and 5,000-mu Cotinus coggygria Scop, the greening is fully covered the mountain. With the combination of agricultural planting and recreational sightseeing, and by based on local natural conditions, the village are planting Chinese herbs under forest and developing potato planting base, which will become a complex with both ornamental and economic value. And a potato processing factory with annual consumption of 2000-ton potato and an annual output of 300 tons of powdered potatoes has been built. By developing rural tourism industry, more than 100 people around the area have been employed, and the poor households are involved in various forms of rural tourism such as family restaurant, picking, and speciality sale. A good interaction of tourism development and poverty alleviation has been formed. 

With unique history and culture, as well as its natural scenery, Yujiagou Village has been successively selected as the fifth batch of national level protected traditional villages, poverty alleviation tourism demonstration village of Shanxi Province, beautiful and livable demonstration village of Shanxi Province, research and study destination of Yuchenglong ancestral place of Lvliang City and key excellent tourism routes, rural tourism scenic spot of Lvliang City, rural tourism demonstration site of Lvliang city, etc. The village will continue to rely on its unique cultural resources like Yu Chenlong, farming culture and folk custom, and to build new tourism road, hold folk performance and farming culture demonstration activities and develop other outdoor tourism items.

In the future, it will combine with Anguo Temple in Lishi District, take advantage of the forest resources of Liulin Forest Farm and Laoposhan Ecological Area to construct a national forest geological park with the theme of "Yu Chenglong Culture". This area will not only become the "back garden" of Lvliang urban area, but also form a brand-new section of Lvliang Mountain tourism, which can contribute to the development of tourism along the Yellow River in Shanxi Province.