"I have never expected that our terraced fields could become an important kind of agricultural heritage in the world. Nowadays, many Internet users have come to know about them," said Liu Zhikai, who was livestreaming a scene while local farmers were picking Sichuan peppers in the terraced fields of Liujia village, north China's Hebei Province.
Liujia village sits along the area where the rain-fed stone terrace farming system is located, in Shexian county, which is situated inside the depths of Taihang Mountains in Hebei.
The rain-fed stone terrace farming system, which enjoys a history of over 700 years, occupies an area of 204 square kilometers, with the terraced fields scattered in 46 villages in the county.
In the past, Shexian county frequently suffered from droughts, and the farmland was infertile. To improve the inhospitable farming environment, the local people built agricultural terraces along the slopes, introduced He Xianlin, an agriculture expert from the bureau of agriculture and rural affairs in Shexian county.
The terraced fields have become a stable tool for local farmers to develop local agriculture and have provided an example of a sustainable model of eco-agriculture in mountainous areas lacking in arable land and rain. Meanwhile, the local people have established a complete system under the framework of which Sichuan peppers and grain crops are able to be mixed and rotated.
In 2014, the rain-fed stone terrace farming system in Shexian county was listed as an nationally important agricultural heritage in China, and in May 2022, it was recognized as one of the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
"I returned to my hometown in 2016. As a fan of short videos, I shot some videos showing villagers working in the terraced fields and shared them on Douyin, and then I found that many people became followers of my Douyin account after watching those videos," said Liu, who has about 1.8 million followers on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok.
In 2018, the Taihang Mountain expressway linking Hebei Province with Beijing started operations, bringing prosperity to rural tourism in places situated along the route.
"The tourists like to pick Sichuan peppers in the terraced fields, as well as eating stewed free-range chicken and steamed pumpkins cooked by us," said Liu Zhangtai, who runs an agritainment business in Liujia village. In 2020, Liujia village was named a key village for rural tourism development in China.
At a crop seed bank located in Wangjinzhuang village, which is situated in the core zone of the rain-fed stone terrace farming system in Shexian county, the seeds of 171 crops in 77 varieties and 26 families are now being preserved. Cao Feiding, head of the rain-fed terraced field protection association in Shexian county, introduced that the seed bank not only provides seeds for farmers, but also offers technical assistance to them.