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Dalao Community

Dalao Community is situated 3.6 km northeast of Beizhai Subdistrict Office. It faces Sunjia Village in the east, Beitou Village in the south, Dong Wuyixiang Village in the west and Nanbeiling Village in the north. The Community embraces a road connecting Hualou scenery area and Beijiushui scenery area. In the east lies a newly built costal walkway stretching from the north to the south.

According to The Genealogy of the Wang Family, Wang Ren, Wang Yi and Wang Li, three brothers and ancestors of the Wang family, came here from Yunnan during Yongle Period of the Ming Dynasty (1403-1424).They set the border of the village: east to the east top of Bangshikou, south to the Fenshiling, west to the Xiangli and north to the Pishikou. The village takes a broad area with a large population and sits deep in the Laoshan Mountain, hence the name Dalao, meaning a big place in Laoshan Mountain. There is another story about how the village was named: A couple of phoenixes came to Laoshan and hovered around Buluo (today’s Buluo Village in Beizhai Subdistrict) to find an ideal place. They flew later to Dalao and found a flat and open land with green hills aside in the south and north and a clear Baisha River going from east to west, a favorable place where they decided to land. Therefore Dalao Village is also called “Daluo Village”, meaning a place where phoenixes land.

Dalao Village enjoys a long and rich history. There was once a school called “Dalao Caotang” in the village, which shared the fame with other renowned schools including Huayang Shuyaun, Kangcheng Shuyuan, Laoshan Shuyuan (Shiwu Shuyaun) and Xia Shuyaun. In his book A Tour in Laoshan, Zhou Zhiyuan said, “Two miles east from Xiaochibi lies Dalao Village. There was once a Dalao Caotang built by the local Zheng Ha but is now deserted.” Zheng Ha, whose former name was Zhang He, was a man of great talent. He was a successful candidate in the imperial examination at provincial level in 1775 and served as a county magistrate in Fujian. In 1774 he went to Beijiushui of Laoshan Mountain and really appreciated the scenery there. When he retired in 1782, he went back to Dalao Village and built Dalao Caotang as his home. In his book Dalao Caotang, he said, “since I retired and came back from the south, I spent all my savings on five mu of land, cut trees to build a house. Workers were gathered in August and in October the house was completed.” He enjoyed himself in the gorgeous scenery here and left many poems praising the land and waters in his book Collections of Dalaoshanfang.

Dalao has a history of over ten centuries in growing cherries. In 1996 the first local Cherry Festival was held which is also the first private cherry festival. Later this cherry festival becomes a brand annual event that attracts a large amount of tourists, solving the problem of cherry picking and transportation since cherries are consumed in trees by visitors. From having a single private host in the first session to being jointly hosted by Laoshan district government and news outlets in these years, the cherry festival has already had a history of 20 years with established fame. Last year it realized a revenue of 1.5 million yuan, increasing 8% compared to the previous year.