Villages hit their goals

Young women of the Miao ethnic group parade into a venue hosting a soccer match of the Rongjiang Village Super League, also known as Cunchao, in Rongjiang county, Qiandongnan Miao and Dong autonomous prefecture, Southwest China's Guizhou province, on July 28.[Photo provided by Zhu Xingxin/China Daily]

Sports carnivals, ethnic culture and pristine natural environments are breathing new life into large swaths of rural China.

In late October, in downtown Rongjiang, Wang Xiantao raised her voice to be heard over the noise from the soccer pitch.

Amateur players from across the country gathered in the county, located in Qiandongnan Miao and Dong autonomous prefecture, Southwest China's Guizhou province, to compete against one another, filling the stands with visitors and drawing a huge amount of online viewers.

Wang vigorously introduced local rural specialities, including red bayberry juice, at one of the pitch-side booths, as thousands of viewers flocked to her online broadcast.

"Thanks to the popularity of the village soccer game, many people from outside know us and our products," she says.

Wang started to engage in livestream sales of local farm produce last year.

"Previously, we could only live off the land, raising pigs and fowl," she says.

"Now we can engage in agricultural production and promote our products to the outside world, which has given us extra income," she says.

Wang calls herself a new digital farmer, and there were at least 1,000 of her peers alongside her at the October invitational tournament.

The Rongjiang Village Super League, also known as Cunchao, has put the county on the map. Starting on May 13 and concluding on July 29, the league features 20 amateur teams drawn from local villages. The event became a national sensation, and a deal was recently struck with the English Premier League which will see the EPL provide training courses to the league, and promote soccer development in the area.

A boy buys a soccer from a stand during the super league, on July 29.[Photo provided by Zhu Xingxin/China Daily]

Over the three months of competition, at least 1 million people attended the matches in person and more than 50 million watched online, according to local authorities. Videos and live broadcasts of the event went viral, having received more than 30 billion clicks.

On the sidelines, according to Xu Bo, head of the county, more than 2,200 local livestream teams have been established, which helps more than 8,000 local residents increase their income, and free training has been given to local intangible cultural heritage inheritors, stay-at-home women and young people coming back to the village from cities.

Cunchao has been more than just a soccer fest, bringing opportunities for local villagers to cash in on the county's unique cultural and tourism resources.

Cute souvenirs and game prizes in the form of textile cows, made with traditional Dong craft techniques, were put front and center during the super league.

They featured local traditional Dong cloth and ethnic patterns by Lai Lei, an experienced cloth weaving and batik artist.

A Miao woman with a soccer-themed cake attends a match of the Rongjiang Village Super League, on July 29.[Photo provided by Zhu Xingxin/China Daily]

"With the rise of the village soccer games, Rongjiang has gained significant attention, and I, as a local artisan, also wanted to add something to it," she says.

She decided to combine traditional textile art from the region with soccer elements and designed a series of cultural and creative products, which have attracted a large number of people among the crowds who came to watch the sport.

Through word of mouth, the market for Lai's products has grown.

"The number of orders lined up peaked at 600, when we were extremely busy and a bit overwhelmed," Lai says.

"We are still figuring out our customer service and delivery processes, so it is a bit chaotic, but we are also happy because having that many orders so early on is a great sign of progress," she adds.

Lai started training local village women in the ethnic cloth production that involves weaving, embroidering and dyeing in 2015, and has formed cooperation ties with more than 2,000 of them from more than 20 villages in Rongjiang county.

"Weaving is definitely a team effort, much like playing soccer. One person alone cannot achieve much, and it's all about teamwork," she says.

Whenever she receives an order, Lai provides raw materials, offers hands-on guidance on the craftsmanship, and collects the finished products.

It's this collaborative model that allows the local weavers to find employment right on their doorstep, eliminating the need to seek work elsewhere.

Annually on average, they each make around 10,000 yuan ($1,396) from weaving, Lai says.

A village woman promotes local specialities during a livestream session near the soccer pitch in Rongjiang.[Photo provided to China Daily]

The phenomenal success of the soccer event has been a huge boost to the growth of the local economy.

The county received more than 3.3 million visitors during the competition, up 131.8 percent as compared with the same period of the previous year, according to the county government.

Tourism revenue had exceeded 3.8 billion yuan, up 164 percent year-on-year.

During the Rongjiang Village Super League, farm produce sales across the county reached 401 million yuan, up 58 percent.

A total of 204 restaurants opened following the event, and more than 80 percent of the hotel rooms and homestays have been booked, according to the county government.

"It gives rural vitalization a great boost," Xu says.

Natural attraction

If sports have played a vital role in changing Rongjiang people's life, it's the natural southern landscape that has paid dividends in Yucun village, Anji county of Zhejiang province.

Gurgling streams and layers of lush foliage, mainly green bamboos, rustling in the wind, make for a refreshing and delightful sight the moment visitors set foot in the village.

In 2005, the concept of "lush mountains and lucid waters" being invaluable assets originated from Yucun.

"In the morning, you can ride bikes along the trails in the sunshine, breathe in the mountain air, and you can get closer to nature in the abandoned quarries, which have been transformed into camping grounds," says Zhang Yun, a local resident.

"At noon, you can enjoy a game of flying discs on the big grassy lawn, go to the library in the afternoon to see exhibitions, and in the evening, there are occasional light shows and murder mystery games," Zhang says, adding that the rural tourism offerings are becoming increasingly diverse.

Visitors wearing VR goggles enjoy a view of Yucun village, Zhejiang province, at an exhibition in the provincial capital Hangzhou, in July 2021.[Photo provided by Dong Xuming/China Daily]

Years of environmental protection and infrastructure development saw Yucun named a Best Tourism Village in 2021 by the United Nations World Tourism Organization.

"In today's Yucun, whether it's daytime or nighttime, visitors can find unique experiences," says Wang Yucheng, Party secretary of the village.

"We have a wide range of offerings, including homestays, restaurants, cafes and bars. It has truly become a well-established tourist destination," Wang adds.

During last year's Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holiday, the village received a total of 65,600 visitors, generating tourism revenue of 29 million yuan.

Last year, Yucun welcomed a total of 700,000 visitors, with a collective income of 13.05 million yuan. The local per capita annual income reached 64,000 yuan, a source of happiness for the villagers.

The vibrant rural tourism industry has seen many young people from the village return from the city to start up local businesses.

A Miao worker from Yunnan province stitches a piece of ethnic clothing in Yinkeng village, Anji county, Huzhou, Zhejiang.[Photo provided by Wang Gang/China News Service]

Ye Chaohuai opened a homestay in July 2022, and the average room occupancy rate has remained above 50 percent ever since.

"During holidays, it can reach up to 80 percent," Ye says.

"You don't have to worry about guests, running a homestay in Yucun, as long as you offer good service and build a good reputation," Ye adds.

In July 2021, Yucun launched the global partners program to invite young talent to jointly work on research-based education, rural tourism, cultural creativity, agriculture and forestry industry, digital economy, green finance, zero-carbon technology, and healthcare.

Chen Zhe is among many who answered the call. He has opened a rural comic-themed creative shop in the village's library, which is located in a former cement factory.

His shop also sells coffee, and is decorated with classic characters created by the Shanghai Animation Film Studio.

He says that he hopes to combine Chinese animation with the idyllic countryside, exploring more opportunities to empower the rural community. More than 260 cultural events are hosted in the village every year.

Recently, local authorities have proposed to build a grand Yucun ecological cultural circle that will cover 24 villages in Anji county.

The idea is to continue broadening the pathway for rural vitalization and extending more development benefits to the villagers, according to the authorities.