Culture and tourism have
given rural development a shot
in the arm and brought signifi-
cant changes to local life.
More than 100,000 travelers
annually flock to Bama Yao au-
tonomous county in the Guangxi
Zhuang autonomous region to
enjoy the therapeutic air and
natural environment, which
has brought an improvement in
the lives of villagers who once
struggled with poverty.
Deng Yongkang has been
doing good business at his
Renshou retreat, which has
integrated healthy food, ethnic
Yao acrobatic performances, a
bamboo forest and rice paddies.“People have been visiting in
huge numbers as the county is
widely considered to be an ideal
location for health and wellness,”
Deng said.
Renshou retreat takes in
400,000 traveler visits every
year, and has helped more than
50 rural households develop
homestay businesses.
Average rural household
income has increased by 30,000
yuan ($4,700) a year, the local
authority said.
Tourism has become a pillar
industry for the county, which
shook off poverty in 2019.
The county received more
than 4.2 million tourist visits
during the first six months of last
year, and more than 36,000 vil-lagers have managed to make a
living out of health and wellness
tourism.
Since China’s top legislature
passed a law that promotes
the national rural revitalization
strategy, which came into force
on June 1 last year, tourism op-
erators have also made inroads
into rural development and play
an increasingly important role in
improving villagers’ lives.
The law features provisions
ranging from attracting talent
and boosting rural industries to
preserving ecology.
Liang Jianzhang, co-founder
of the online travel agency
Trip.com Group, said opportuni-
ties for homestay development
abound in rural areas.Since March last year the
agency has developed eight
rural retreats in Anhui, Henan,
Jiangxi and Hunan provinces.
The first, at Dawan village,
Anhui province, opened on July
3 and the rural resorts proved
popular among travelers during
the National Day holiday in
October.
Some reported occupancy
rates of more than 90% up to
15 days before the holiday, the
agency said.
The rural retreats are part of
Trip.com Group’s plan to set up a
1 billion yuan fund to build model
destinations in the country’s
rural areas. Ten high-end resorts
are at the heart of the strategy.
One hundred tourism villagesChina Watch materials are distributed by China Daily Distribution Corp. on behalf of China Daily, Beijing, China.ADVERTISEMENT
CHINA WATCH
PRESENTED BY CHINA DAILY
HEALTHY
CHANGES
Tourism continues to fuel rural revitalizationIt was cloudy on March 24 in
Mazhuang town, Tai’an city, a
major wheat production area in
Shandong province. Rain was
forecast for the next day.
Xue Lina, who runs an agri-
cultural cooperative in the town,
walked among a large expanse
of land used to grow wheat,viewing green seedlings swaying
in the breeze.
This year has proved tougher
for Xue, 39, than previous ones,
as she noticed more vulner-
able wheat seedlings when the
crop started to turn green in
February.
“This vulnerability is prob-
ably due to late planting as
a result of flooding in the
autumn,” she said, adding thewinter planting in the town was
delayed for 20 days.
By taking technical assis-
tance, Xue and her colleagues
have been quick to offset the im-
pact arising from late planting.
To improve crop nutrition,
organic fertilizer must be spread
on dozens of acres of wheat on
days when rainfall is likely.
Mechanization is on hand to
help, with two of the coopera-tive’s workers using agricultural
drones to spread fertilizer over
the wheat on March 24.
“A single drone can spread
fertilizer over about 25 acres
of farmland in a day,” Xue said,
adding that drones spread more
evenly than agricultural workers.
Since February, experts
have been sent to key wheat
production areas by agricul-
tural authorities to help farmers
improve the quality of vulner-
able seedlings.Latest methods help in struggle of late planting
A rope slide allows tourists to enjoy a spectacular view of a tea plantation in
Gulou village in Shaoyang, Hunan province. TENG ZHIZHONG / FOR CHINA DAILYBY ZHAO RUIXUE, TAN YINGZI
and DENG RUI