Local specialties revive small Chinese towns

Editor’s note: In recent years China has made impressive achievements in poverty alleviation and rural revitalization. Part of that drive is a series of tailored and innovative industries that make the best use of local conditions to help rural residents boost their incomes.

Let’s have a look at some regional products that have helped to revive the rural economy!

Woodblock printing

With a history of more than 1,000 years, woodblock printing was adopted by ancient Chinese as a way to keep written records. The process is very complicated, including painting, engraving and printing.

Sibao town in Liancheng county of Fujian province is famous for the preservation of traditional Chinese woodblock printing. And the Sibao woodblock printing technique was enlisted as a national intangible cultural heritage in 2008.

"In its heyday, books printed in Sibao were sold around the country, and to Southeast Asian countries," inheritor Ma Li said.

The town now has 50 ancient bookshops and many cultural relics. It also invited tourists and students to learn from artisans.

Handicraft weaving and tie-dyeing

Experiencing traditional handicraft dyeing and weaving techniques is a special cultural and creative endeavor in Pingtian village of Sidu town in Lishui, East China's Zhejiang province. It is also an effort to protect and carry forward traditional handicraft intangible cultural heritage.

One of the most unique features of weaving and tie-dyeing is that all the dyes used are produced from plants and tea leaves in the mountains around the village, which endows the products profound tea culture.

Because of its profound heritage and pristine natural landscape, Pingtian has effectively utilized its resources for sustainable development since 2014.

Through rural tourism, the village embarked on an in-depth integration and green development of agriculture, tourism, cultural innovation and other sectors.

Oilpaper umbrella

Oilpaper umbrella is a kind of traditional Chinese handicraft made of bamboo and paper coated in the oil of the tungnut for waterproofing. It has been around for at least 1,000 years and was eventually adopted in other parts of Asia.

Both ceremonial and practical, the oilpaper umbrella was used on rainy days, as well as during weddings and religious ceremonies. Usually exquisitely patterned and now more decorative than functional, it is often found for sale at tourist sites or in hotels as decorations.

"The oilpaper umbrella is like my lover; it has been with me my whole life and always makes me feel better," said Li Zhenxia, a 58-year-old entrepreneur and an intangible cultural heritage inheritor, who owns an oilpaper umbrella store in the Datong ancient town in Chishui city, Guizhou province.

Liubao tea

With a long history of over 1,500 years, Liubao tea was one of the most important commodities along the ancient Maritime Silk Road and has long been popular among people in Southeast Asian countries.

Liubao tea is considered one of the best in the country and was served in tribute to Emperor Jiaqing during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).

As the birthplace of Liubao tea, Liubao town in Wuzhou, the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, has been striving to boost its integrated tea and tourism over the years.

Dazhong village, southeast of Liubao, received 150,000 visitors during the Spring Festival of 2021, and the collective income reached 88,300 yuan ($13,810) in 2020, after locals were encouraged to develop tea gardens under a program that brings together business, cooperative oversight and rural households.

In 2021, the brand value of Liubao Tea was 3.234 billion yuan, ranking first in Guangxi and third in the national black tea category; the comprehensive output value increased from 3.8 billion yuan in 2016 to 8.5 billion yuan in 2020.

Bark paintings

Bark paintings, a form of intangible cultural heritage of the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, is made from bark chippings scaling off white birch trees.

The painting has helped many villagers overcome poverty in White Wolf town, Arxan city, Inner Mongolia autonomous region, as the town is rich in forest resources and making such paintings is environmentally friendly and also beneficial by providing employment to some locals.

At present, annual sales of bark paintings in White Wolf town can reach hundreds of thousands of yuan.

Hot springs

Shiqian, a small county located in Tongren, Southwest China’s Guizhou province, has witnessed its local economy heat up by its rich, high-quality hot springs.

In 2020, the two hot spring sites in Shiqian received 1.14 million tourists and earned 193.3 million yuan ($29.7 million) in revenue, official statistics showed.

In the first half of 2021, one of the two sites had already attracted about 203,000 tourists, raking in 24.3 million yuan. "The hot springs truly transformed fortunes here," said Qin Huiming, a local official in charge of the sites.

Traditional Chinese hanfu

When it comes to the traditional Chinese hanfu,Caoxian in East China's Shandong province is definitely a place that cannot be ignored.

Caoxian, once a small town suffering from poverty, now has benefited a lot from the booming e-commerce in China, with hanfubecoming a fashionable trend among the Generation Z consumers.

As China’s largest hanfumanufacturing base, Caoxian saw the online sales of its products reach nearly 1.9 billion yuan ($30 million) in 2019, accounting for one-third of the country's total, according to the e-commerce service center of Caoxian.

There are now over 2,000 enterprises working in the hanfusector in Caoxian, ranging from costume design, cloth production, pattern printing and logistics.