Tourism site helping village prosper

Together with his wife and little boy, Cui Xuan drove his car to a farm near his home on Sunday morning, an almost routine activity for the family of three.

After they arrived, Cui's 3-year-old son took out several carrot sticks from his small bag and fed them to a bunch of rabbits through a fence.

In less than 10 minutes, the rabbits had eaten the equivalent of a whole carrot.

Then, the family headed to a nearby greenhouse where peach trees were full of ripe fruit.

Holding scissors, Cui was responsible for clipping peaches from the trees while his wife and son were in charge of putting them in a big bucket.

"Every other week, we take our son here to get in touch with nature — feeding animals and picking fruit," the 36-year-old father said, adding that his child loves the experience very much.

The farm they went to is called Tongfu Fairyland, which is inside a tourism compound in Tayuanzhuang, a village in Zhengding county, Shijiazhuang, Hebei province.

Besides the fairyland — the most popular attraction for children — the compound also boasts other facilities, including a camper hotel, a training base for farmers and a meeting center.

Developed by Tongfu Group, the tourism site has become a milestone on the village's path to rural vitalization.

During recent years, Tayuanzhuang, well-known in Shijiazhuang and nearby cities, has yielded remarkable results in rural vitalization as villagers work and live with increased happiness and outsiders come to settle down.

Located about 300 kilometers southwest of Beijing, Tayuanzhuang started its transformation in 2008 when its Party chief Yin Jiping and his work teams successfully invited companies to develop rural land there, aiming to provide better living conditions for villagers, according to Zhang Jinxia, a member of the village's committee, which provides all-around services for the residents.

"The attractive points are that the village is near the downtown area of Zhengding county and not far from downtown Shijiazhuang, and also that it sits near a local river — the Hutuo River — which has beautiful scenery," she said.

Since then, Tayuanzhuang has found a way to help improve villagers' lives.

They call it the village-enterprise cooperation, through which more than 10 companies, including the Tongfu Group, have invested in the village, developing industries such as tourism, nursing and the processing of agricultural products.

According to Zhang, via the cooperation, in which the village owns shares, the village has earned an annual collective income of about 35 million yuan ($4.8 million) on average in recent years.

More than 2,000 villagers in Tayuanzhuang are greatly benefiting from the village's development, Zhang said.

"Almost all the living expenses are covered for villagers, including heating fees in winter and property management fees," she said, adding that each villager receives dividends at the end of each year.

In addition to the direct benefits, the village-enterprise cooperation has created jobs for villagers, with more than two-thirds of them working in the companies, Zhang said.

She added that more than 4,000 people from outside the village have come to buy apartments and settle down in Tayuanzhuang.

"What attracts them is that they can live with high standards like in cities while enjoying the natural things in villages such as the scenery and agricultural produce near at hand," Zhang said.