\The friends here are so hospitable, and the bond is so deep that I always feel like I'll never see them again once I leave.\ Ye Zhu, the head of the Honghe group of the Shanghai Aid Yunnan Cadre Liaison Group, who is about to conclude his three-year assistance work in Yunnan, spoke with a sense of reluctance.
In July 2022, Ye set foot on the land of Honghe Hani and Yi Autonomous Prefecture in Yunnan Province. Looking back on this journey of assistance spanning thousands of miles, from the banks of the Huangpu River to the Yunling Plateau, his story not only includes specific practices of assisting Yunnan such as collaborative projects, investment attraction, and consumer assistance, but also accumulates a deep emotional attachment to this passionate land.
Upon arriving in Honghe, Ye Zhu was immediately struck by the natural environment and pace of life in Yunnan. \Every meal, every dish is spicy, and I really couldn't get used to it at first,\ he said with a smile. The greater challenge, however, came from transportation. \It's common to spend several hours driving from Mengzi City to the most remote townships in Honghe Prefecture.\
Ye Zhu's memory of a business trip to Lvchun County is still fresh: \At that time, some roads were being expanded and not yet completed, so the unfinished sections were bumpy stone roads. On a sunny day, a 30-kilometer journey could be covered, but in the rain, only 10 kilometers could be managed, and the car would be covered in mud upon entering.\
Despite this, the twists and turns of the mountain roads in Yunnan did not stop Ye Zhu's steps, but instead paved the way for his deep friendship with the grassroots masses. Over the past three years, his footprints have covered every corner of the mountains and waters in Honghe Prefecture - the barrel aquaculture project in Yuanyang has helped farmers increase their income, and the \pocket parks\ in Luxi are nurturing the hope of increasing collective economic income in the village amidst the smoke of tourists' cooking. \Many villages can receive hundreds of thousands of dividends each year through cooperative projects, and the smiles on the faces of the villagers are the best reward.\ These tangible results have become the endless driving force for Ye Zhu to move forward.
As the head of the liaison group for aid cadres from Xuhui and Changning districts in Shanghai to Yunnan, he was in charge of 7 counterpart counties that were once the main battlefields for poverty alleviation, among which 4 were deeply impoverished counties. When he first arrived, it was a critical period for consolidating and expanding the achievements of poverty alleviation and connecting with rural revitalization. To ensure the effectiveness of the assistance work, he closely monitored every link in the use of funds to ensure the implementation of projects.
In terms of industrial cooperation, he and his team have explored a new model of \industrial park co-construction + port linkage\. In the Honghe section of the China (Yunnan) Pilot Free Trade Zone, a cold chain logistics industrial park built by Shanghai with an investment of 9 million yuan has been completed, and the fruit freeze-drying project of Chongqing Haway Company will be put into production by the end of July this year. \In the past, it was just simple commodity trade, but now with deep processing, it can drive employment and increase tax revenue, and the industrial chain is truly activated,\ said Ye Zhu.
As he becomes more familiar with the Red River, the abundance of resources and vitality here deeply impresses Ye Zhu. \The variety of fruits in the Red River is astonishing,\ he listed the pomegranates and loquats of Mengzi, the kiwis of Pingbian, and the grapes of Mile... \These fruits are all cultivated on a scale of over 100,000 mu in the Red River, and blueberries, bananas, and mangoes are everywhere, with the production of fruits and vegetables ranking in the top three in Yunnan...\
When it comes to the biggest challenge in supporting Yunnan, Ye Zhu believes it is the problem of resource matching. \The urban areas of Shanghai are mainly focused on the service industry and headquarters economy, which do not match well with the agriculture and port economy of Honghe.\ To address this, he took the initiative to transform, starting from \zero,\ proactively visiting companies, connecting with departments, and bringing Yunnan's specialty agricultural products to Shanghai exhibitions to expand sales channels. \We organized Mingji Coffee to sign a procurement agreement worth 820 million yuan at the 2024 China-Vietnam Hekou Border Economic, Trade, and Tourism Fair, bringing the fruits and coffee of Honghe into thousands of households in Shanghai,\ said Ye Zhu.
Working in Yunnan is busy, and Ye can only take a vacation back to Shanghai during the Spring Festival each year. \The three years of high school for my child are the most critical, but I was absent, yet the support from my family remains my solid backing.\ Now, looking at the cold storage of the Hekou Cold Chain Logistics Park rising from the ground, the steady progress of the monocrystalline silicon project in Mengzi Economic Development Zone, and the village's industrial projects enriching the villagers, he said: \All the efforts are worth it. Aid to Yunnan is not just about giving money and projects, but more importantly, leaving a sustainable mechanism, allowing the assistance work to truly shift from 'transfusion' to 'self-sustaining blood production'.\
The three-year support mission in Yunnan is about to come to an end, and as Ye Zhu organizes his work materials before leaving, he feels a mix of emotions. He knows that he will soon embark on new challenges. However, the mountain roads of the Red River, the orchards, the industrial parks, and the figures who fought side by side will forever remain in his memory, for they are the most precious medals of these 3 years.
Author: Wang Yu, Cheng Yidan, Jiang Shan, Bian Siyu, Pu Qinhao from Fudan University
Mentors: Tao Jianjie Zhang Zhi'an
(Original title: \Retracing the Journey of the United Front University, Continuing the Dream of a Strong Country | Three Years of Aid to Yunnan: The Persistence and Growth of a Shanghai Cadre in Honghe\)