Jiangsu tourism benefits from growing appeal

But rural tourism also attracts so many travelers to the province with its unique charm. It not only brings benefits to rural areas, increases their incomes, but also improves people's living environment and quality of life.

For instance, Mazhuang village in Xuzhou city now attracts more than 4 million travelers every year. When seeing the gardens, rivers and countless trees in the village, most travelers cannot imagine that it used to be a poverty-stricken village that simply relied on digging coal mines.

With mines closed by the government in the 2000s, the village's income plummeted by 70 percent. It realized the importance of sustainable development, and started to pay attention to environmental protection and rural tourism. After the Pan'an Lake National Wetland Park was built on mine subsidence in 2012, the village gradually built buildings in ancient Chinese style, planted trees and dug rivers that flowed around the village.

The village even formed its own brass band and folk culture performance troupe, which now performs at least 120 times for villagers and travelers a year.