Homing in on the great outdoors

Seeking respite

Zha, 68, is the former deputy director of the rural science and technology development center of the science and technology department of Ningxia and serves as a volunteer adviser for the Xinhe village RV campsite.

After retiring, he and his wife began traveling around in their RV.He says: "The world is so vast, we want to see more of it." During the spring and autumn, they stay in places like Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Sichuan provinces, living the RV life. In winter, they head to Yunnan and Hainan provinces.

"One summer before retiring, I visited Mohe city in Heilongjiang province, the northernmost part of China. It was a great place to escape the heat and see blue skies with white clouds and vast expanses. But it is far from Ningxia. In the following years, I sought respite from the heat in different places but wasn't successful."

In August 2019, Zha and his friends traveled by RV to Longde county. Following the locals' recommendations, they arrived in Xinhe. In his travel blog, he described it as "a misty, small mountain village, dreamlike and enchanting, with a unique charm. In the past, one could only experience such feelings through movie scenes or novel descriptions. Now, Xinhe has stepped to the forefront of new rural construction".

"The village had relatively well-developed tourism infrastructure. Along the tourist routes where campsites could be established was access to water and electricity and the roads were in good condition, requiring only minor modifications for parking areas."

After the layout for the first phase of RV campsites was finalized, Zhao led the villagers to build the RV campsite in the winter of 2019 and, by the following spring, it was ready for use.