The retired couple of Shexian County in Handan transformed 500 mu of barren mountain into "Huaguo Mountain".

In the Nanlin Mountains behind Caojiazhuang Village, Longhu Township, Shexian County, there is a couple in their twenties. They have sufficient pensions and have no worries about their lives, but they painstakingly return to the countryside to contract more than 500 mu of barren mountains, reclaim land, plant trees, and develop characteristic aquaculture. Their green dreams are rooted in the Taihang Mountains.

Caojiazhuang Village is located in Longhu Township, Shexian County, with a total of 175 households, a population of 585 and an arable land area of 380 mu. Due to the scarcity of land, most villagers choose to go out to work for a living. The barren mountain south woodland contracted by Cao Heshun and his wife, 65, is located three kilometers behind Caojiazhuang village, where the land is barren and full of thorns, and no one has been interested in it for many years. But it is such a place that, thanks to the efforts of the old Cao couple for more than five years, has become a "flower and fruit mountain" and a "big farm" hidden in the depths of the mountain. Today, a mountain road 5 meters wide and more than 1000 meters long has been completed and opened to traffic. More than 1000 apple trees, cherry trees, plum trees, peach trees, apricot trees, prickly ash trees, walnut trees and persimmon trees are planted all over the hillside, and more than 1000 chickens, ducks and geese are raised here. Villagers all say that Lao Cao and his wife saved the mountain, and the bald mountain began to turn green in the past.

"I've been drifting outside all my life, but when I get old, I want to come back and plant some trees on this mountain in my hometown for my children and grandchildren to think about!" On July 12, the author met Cao Heshun and his wife Wang Shuqin. Through the conversation, I learned that Lao Cao is a former worker of the Commercial Bureau of Handan City, and his son works in Qingdao. After retiring in 2011, he and his wife returned to the barren hills behind Caojiazhuang Village, Longhu Township, Shexian County, to develop the breeding industry and realize his green dream for many years. Although he is in his sixties, Lao Cao and his wife are in good spirits, especially at the mention of his 500-acre barren mountain and his ecological farm. "when we first arrived on the mountain, there was no water, electricity, or roads, so we had to walk five or six miles to the village to fetch water and buy food and vegetables. In December, we had to build a Weir against the howling mountain wind, and our hands were covered with blood." Wang Shuqin, his wife, said as she pointed to a 4000-meter-long and 4-meter-high stone Weir nearby that it took Lao Cao more than three years to build the "Stone Great Wall." at present, Lao Cao has invested more than 500,000 yuan in the mountain.

Under the leadership of Lao Cao, the villagers began to see a "new way" to get rich. They went up the mountain to learn fruit tree grafting, poultry, Tuyuan breeding and other techniques. The once barren mountains began to liven up, and the villagers' days became more and more hopeful. Lao Cao's green dream is also being realized step by step.