Beautiful evolution of villages through integration with rural tourism

Although it is late in winter, Xiankeng Village in Kanghe Town of Heyuan City, Guangdong Province, is still full of green woods and clear water, where the streams murmur. As a model village under a national-level rural tourism program and one of Guangdong's "10 beautiful villages", Xiankeng has over 400 years of history, and an appealing and long-standing Hakka culture.

At “Yunqin Homestay”, the home of Ye Yunqin, the two stories are clean and tidy, the two rooms on the second floor have standard bunk beds, and the cartoon tags and clocks on the wall make the rooms full of childishness.

"In the second half of 2020, after the pandemic situation eased, we received many students who came on a research and study trip. In October alone, we received 14 batches of students, a total of 280 of them," Ye says. Ye and his wife are responsible for taking students to experience farm work. His home can host 20 students at once, and the three meals cost 60 yuan per person, with another 30 yuan of accommodation fees. Altogether, a student's daily expensive is less than 100 yuan. The development of research and study tourism increased their income and helped his family overcome poverty.

The development of research and study tourism in Xiankeng Village cannot do without the utmost support from Dongyuan Beautiful Village Kanghe Operation Limited Company. The person in charge, Lai Jianbin states that during these trips, the company gathers students to participate in a series of activities of "come to the village, experience rural customs, live in rural homes, and do farm work". More specifically, it organizes students to harvest rice, chaff its husk, burn firewood and do other public welfare activities, to help the students appreciate traditional Hakka culture.

"Until four years ago, visiting Xiankeng Village was not that easy," Lai recalls. At the time, the village had not built asphalt road, there were garbage and weeds everywhere, it was also impossible to develop village tourism.

"Change came from the provincial project of creating new socialist countryside model villages from poor villages designated by provincial-level authorities" Xiao Long, Deputy Town Chief of Kanghe Town states. Now, the roads in the village are widened, old houses have been renovated, old villages become more lively, and villagers earn more. What was once a poor village becomes a hot travel destination for research and study tourism.

"We cannot develop rural tourism without the help of villagers," says Lai. To mobilize villagers to participate enthusiastically, Xiankeng Village explored the developmental model of "ten thousand homestays" to help local villagers to provide food and accommodation, recreational activities and other services to tourists. In one year's time, the village attracted over 30,000 students from the Pearl River Delta region to visit and experience rural life. Driven by research and study tourism, the impoverished population of 182 people from 58 households in the village overcame poverty by the end of 2019, and the village earned a collective income of over 400,000 Yuan.

"In order to develop rural tourism, market entities must participate. We have to use new concepts and models, fully embrace marketization to have a better development prospect." Xiao states frankly that the improvement of village environment and the development of the industry of culture and tourism cannot be done without government funding, innovation of the systems and mechanisms, and professional teams and talents.

"In the future, we will fully utilize the financial funds from the central and provincial levels, to accelerate the environmental renovation of rural areas, create beautiful villages that are ecologically livable, quicken the process of establishing and improving the long-term management and protection mechanisms of rural living environments. At the same time, through policy innovations such as soft loans and guarantees, we will encourage more rural households to participate in research and study tourism, let more households benefit from the establishment of beautiful villages."

Contributed by Li Hui, Guangming Daily reporter

Translated by Zhang Junye