Wang Fang stands on a square in Yaoluoping village of East China’s Anhui province, telling visitors the stories of her forefathers’ generations.
Behind her is a memorial hall for the 28th Corp of the Chinese Red Army, which was headquartered in the village in the 1930s. Several kilometers away is a mountain, whose shape is like a harrier, a species of eagle, half-extending its wings.
The village of Yaoluoping, which literally means ‘harrier lands on the ground’, is named after the specially shaped mountain.
“It’s like a harrier trying to take off, while the pioneers of the village wished that the harrier could stay to protect them,” said Wang, who learned the story when she was a child. The woman, 40 years old and mother of two boys, volunteered to be a commentator at the memorial hall when it was opened to the public in 2008.
Her husband now runs a hostel, which provides catering and homestays to tourists and saw a net income of more than 300,000 yuan…