On the morning of April 19, at Hualong Station in Manchuan'guan Town, Shanyang County, Shangluo City, rows of neatly parked buses stood ready to depart, and ticket sellers organized passengers to board in an orderly manner. At 9:30, the vehicles departed on schedule and headed for the expressway.
"Oh dear, this bus has already left—what time is the next one?" asked local resident Fang Tangqing. "A bus leaves every half hour, the whole trip is on the expressway, and you reach the county seat in 40 minutes!" said a station worker.
Fang Tangqing said with a smile: "It's really convenient now—a quick nap and you're in the county seat. Before the expressway opened, going to the county seat meant taking a regular bus along Provincial Road 203 through Kuanping, Banyan and Sehe, and a one-way trip took more than two hours. In the past there were so many curves and the journey was so long that the bumpy ride made people sick the whole way—it was truly miserable!"
As Shaanxi's "southeast gate," Manchuan'guan has since ancient times been known as a "water-and-land wharf" with "southward access to Wu and Chu, northward links to Qin and Jin." But with the opening of the Longhai Railway, freight that once passed through here was rerouted, water transport gradually declined, and Manchuan'guan, once prosperous, entered a "dormant period." Constrained by transport conditions, not only did local residents face travel difficulties, but high-quality agricultural products could not be shipped out in time, severely restricting the rapid economic and social development of the area.
In October 2009, the Shangman Expressway, an important component of the Fuzhou–Yinchuan Expressway, opened along its entire length, cutting travel time from Manchuan'guan, at the Shaanxi–Hubei border, to Xi'an and the Wuhan area to within three hours. With the expressway as its "main artery," Manchuan'guan's connections with the outside world have become faster and closer. The Qinling barrier has become a thoroughfare, giving wings to the ancient town and restoring its luster.
Today, even on a non-holiday, tourists stream through Manchuan'guan's old town and vendors are kept busy. Yu Houlin, operator of the Sichuan–Shaanxi–Hubei Hotel, shuttles constantly between the lobby and the kitchen, busy serving dishes and introducing local specialties to tourists.
"I'm a native of Manchuan'guan. As the expressway opened, more and more people came here to travel, so I started a business right at my doorstep—first to serve tourists, and second to increase my income," Lao Yu said with a smile.
Near noon, the reporter drove to Xiaohekou Village, which borders Shangjin Town in Shiyan City, Hubei Province. Located on the banks of the Jinqian River, the village is traversed by Provincial Road 203 and an extension of the Shangman Expressway. Here one can experience both the cultural character of Qin and Chu and the natural scenery of clear waters and green mountains. After several years of development, Xiaohekou Village is now a well-known rural tourism destination.
The agritainment business "Wang Family Courtyard," opened by Xiaohekou Village Party branch secretary Wang Liqing, is famous near and far. Before mealtime, cars with license plates from various places were already packed in front of his home. "I opened the agritainment in 2007, and with the opening of the Shangman Expressway, visitors suddenly surged. To increase capacity, in 2013 I invested 800,000 yuan to expand it; now it can serve more than 400 people at once and receives an average of over 150 visitors a day," Wang Liqing said. Today the village has become more beautiful, and there are eight agritainment businesses.
With the expressway open, the flow of people and vehicles has gradually increased, bringing new opportunities for tourism development in Manchuan'guan. "In recent years, taking advantage of the opening of the Shangman Expressway and building on local natural and cultural resources, the town has invested a cumulative 2 billion yuan and focused on tourism, successfully creating the Manchuan National 4A-level Scenic Area and the Manchuan Provincial Tourist Resort, with rising fame," said Si Zhengzheng, deputy mayor of Manchuan'guan Town. "In recent years, Manchuan'guan has received more than 1 million tourists annually, with comprehensive tourism revenue of more than 300 million yuan, creating jobs for more than 2,000 local people and increasing per capita tourism income by 15,000 yuan."
Once the road is open, the world opens wide. Convenient transport has not only boosted local tourism but also made Manchuan'guan an increasingly "new hot spot" for many local "capable people" to return and invest.
One of them is Zhu Fengcai, a man just over 40 from Banmiao Village. After 20 years of hard work, he has achieved modest success in the building-materials business in Xi'an. In early 2015, Zhu Fengcai, who had always harbored the idea of returning home to start a business, realized his dream. That year he founded Shaanxi Tianzhu Beverage Co., Ltd. in his hometown, building a water business on local mountain spring water rich in beneficial elements such as strontium.
"My hometown has a good ecological environment and clean, unpolluted water sources with high mineral content. Years ago I had the idea of returning home to start a water plant, but poor transport was the biggest obstacle," Zhu Fengcai said. "However, with the opening of the Shangman Expressway, product distribution has become more convenient, which strengthened my determination to return home and build the water plant. Now our purified water and specialty beverages are sold across the country; last year sales reached more than 20 million yuan, and we have also provided jobs for more than 120 local people."
Zhu Fengcai said that in July this year the company's Phase II project will officially go into production, by which time three production lines for mountain spring water and soda water will be completed, producing 24,000 bottles per hour, with expected annual sales of more than 50 million yuan. At the same time, the company will add more than 40 local jobs.
"Inconvenient transport was once a major bottleneck restricting Manchuan'guan's economic development," said Feng Rui, director of the Shanyang Manchuan Tourist Resort Management Committee and Party secretary of Manchuan'guan Town. Today Manchuan'guan is well connected, driving the prosperous development of industries across the town and fostering "six major industrial belts" including tea, medicine, fruit and tourism, as well as "four major industrial parks" such as Jinchuan Pharmaceutical and Youyuan Agriculture. Manchuan'guan Town has gradually formed a sound industrial layout, laying a solid foundation for high-quality development and rural revitalization.