30 BEIJING REVIEW AUGUST 29, 2019 http://www.bjreview.comX
ijingyu Village, with only 500 in-
habitants and hidden away in the
mountains of Jizhou District of Tianjin,
has reinvented itself into a must-see tourist
site in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region over
the past few years.
Established in the Qing Dynasty (1644-
1911), Xijingyu is a veritable “stone village,”
with roads paved with stones, houses built
with stones, together with the ubiquitous
stone-built public facilities. It is also part of
a national geological park.
The turning point came in 2014. That
year, Li Qian, CEO of Beijing-based Jiulue
Tourism Advisory Firm, made a proposal
to the Jizhou District Government to trans-
form old farmhouses in Xijingyu into
boutique homestays with fewer rooms,
highlighting the village’s unique architec-
tural characteristics.
“This modest and intact village ap-
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how well-preserved and long-hidden it was
between Beijing and Tianjin, the two most
populous cities in north China,” Qiu Tian,
manager of Jiulue’s homestay program in
Xijingyu, told Beijing Review.
Xijingyu’s updated courtyard houses
satisfy tourists’ needs for country life as
well as a premium accommodation experi-
ence. “It’s totally different from those rustic
rural farmhouses in my mind. It is an oasis
of peace and tranquillity to have a taste
of authentic country life,” said a tourist on
Dianping, China’s location-based review
site.
In July, a total of 320 villages across
China, including Xijingyu, were designatedhomestays should not become a clone of
hotels in cities or a refurbishment of agrit-
ainment,” Luo said.
In Xijingyu, 40 percent of villagers
have directly or indirectly participated
in the tourism industry through the lo-
cal government’s Optimal Farm program,
which encourages villagers to turn their
rustic and spare farmhouses into boutique
homestays.
For villagers who volunteer to par-
ticipate in the program, the government
offers interest-free loans, free redesign and
remodeling of old farmhouses, and other
supporting services. Funds have also been
allocated to improve the public infrastruc-
ture and the landscape of the village.
Zhou Zhifu, a villager in Xijingyu, and
his wife run a 10-room homestay, which
opened in 2016. “Tourists love our refur-
bished house that preserves Xijingyu’s
distinctive architectural style. Our income
has tripled since we transformed our old
farmhouse into a premium country-style
homestay,” Zhou said.Making a new living
Some 300 km away from Xijingyu,
Zhonghaoyu Village in Zibo, east China’s
Shandong Province, is famous for its
peach blossoms that cover the woods
each spring. Once stuck in serious poverty,
Zhonghaoyu turned its eye toward tourism
in 2003, focusing on its ecological resourc-
es. However, many homestays operated by
local farmers closed down in the following
years due to poor management and price
wars.
In 2011, Zhao Shengjian, a returned
university graduate, set up Youyougu
Tourism Development Co. in Zhonghaoyu.
He invited villagers to join the company as
shareholders and promised to reward them
with dividends according to the money
and manpower they invested. Upon the
villagers’ agreement, all the homestays in
the village are priced and managed by the
company. In addition, homestay staff isrural tourism demonstration destinations
by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism
(MCT) and the National Development and
Reform Commission. “Strengthening rural
characteristics, sustainable development
and protection, and the restoration of rural
landscapes are the key goals of the desig-
nation,” Luo Shugang, Minister of Culture
and Tourism, said at a national conference
in Chengdu, southwest China’s Sichuan
Province.An exemplary village
Many villages have recently become popu-
lar weekend getaways for tourists. In the
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dwellers chose rural areas as their travel
destinations, up 10.2 percent year on year.
As a result, tourism has become a new
driver for rural areas to vitalize the local
economy and protect cultural, architectural
and ecological diversity.
Agritainment, a farm destination for
urban people to experience country life,
used to be the major model of rural tour-
ism in China. It appealed to urban tourists
with low-cost packages including meals,
lodgings and sightseeing, despite poor
services. Now, villages are rolling out new
measures—country-style premium home-
stays—in order to break away from this
outdated model.
The shift has received enormous atten-
tion from the MCT. Emphasizing the role
of homestays in rural tourism, the ministry
has called for an eco-friendly approach that
adapts to local conditions and retains local
ßDYRULQGHYHORSLQJWKHLQGXVWU\p&RXQWU\Country homestays lead rural tourism boom By Sherry Qin
Rural Rebirth
NATION
In the first half of 2019, 1.51 billion Chinese
urban dwellers chose rural areas as their
travel destinations, up 10.2 percent year
on year