Hongqi Korean Folk Village

Hongqi Korean Folk Village is located in Wanbao Town, Antu County, Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture, at the foot of Changbai Mountain, one of China’s Top Ten Famous Mountains. The village has a total of 86 households with 326 residents, all of whom are ethnic Koreans. It boasts 80 hectares of cultivated land, including 65 hectares of paddy fields and 15 hectares of dry farmland.

Within the village, there are 15 tourist restaurants, 35 family inns, 4 tourist shopping outlets and 2 folk art performance troupes. Seven specialized breeding households raise a total of 232 sika deer. Over 30 hectares of land are planted with various Chinese medicinal herbs such as ginseng, adenophora tetraphylla and rhodiola root. In 2005, Comrade Li Dezhu, then Director of the State Ethnic Affairs Commission, gladly inscribed the village with the title: China’s No.1 Korean Village.

Since 2003, relying on the abundant tourist flow to Changbai Mountain, Hongqi Village has fully leveraged its folk customs and eco-tourism resources as well as environmental advantages to vigorously develop folk and ecological tourism, striving to build the brand of "China’s No.1 Korean Village". It has gradually formed a folk tourism industrial system featuring distinctive Korean cuisine, folk performances, ethnic custom experiences, family getaways and agricultural sightseeing, with unique rural folk tourism products of its own. The village has rapidly grown into a key scenic spot along the Changbai Mountain tourist route.

Starting from 2004, with strong financial support from the provincial government and in combination with the construction of a moderately well-off demonstration village, the CPC Antu County Committee and Antu County People’s Government carried out a comprehensive renovation of Hongqi Village. A total investment of 11.02 million yuan was injected into infrastructure projects, including village road hardening, rural housing renovation, tap water pipeline upgrading, reconstruction of communication and cable television networks, construction of the sika deer farm, comprehensive land improvement and greening works.

Meanwhile, Hongqi Village established two new economic organizations: a Tourism Association and a Chinese Medicinal Herbs Association. A Tourism Development Co., Ltd. was founded in early 2006, guiding the village’s industrial development toward large-scale and corporate operation, which greatly boosted villagers’ income. In 2007, the village’s total economic revenue reached 4.7 million yuan, of which tourism revenue accounted for 2.7 million yuan, with a per capita income of 7,100 yuan, ranking among the top in the whole town.

After years of development, Hongqi Village has received numerous honors, including National Advanced Unit for the Development of Civilized Villages and Towns, National Demonstration Site for "Virtues in Rural Families", national-level Cultural Activity Station for Rural Women, Advanced Village in Jilin Provincial Spiritual Civilization Construction, Provincial-level Demonstration Site for "Virtues in Rural Families", Prefectural Advanced Party Branch for Moderately Well-off Villages and Advanced Grassroots Party Organization. The village has also been rated a National AA-level Tourist Attraction by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, and named a Jilin Provincial Tourist Village and Town by the Jilin Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism.