We are all so passionate

My parents grew up in Pingtan county, but they later moved to Quanzhou, Fujian province. I was born and raised in Quanzhou, and I didn't visit the county until 2016.

Several years ago, I started hearing about Pingtan on news programs after the government said the county would be built into a center for tourism.

In 2016, I saw a TV report about the opening of Lin Jhih-yuan's homestay ("Singing Stones" in Beigang, a village on Haitan Island).

In the video, a musician from Taiwan performed "stone music". I was attracted by that, and also by Lin's ideas, so I contacted him and he invited me to visit the homestay.

When I traveled to Beigang, it was the first time I had visited Pingtan. At the time, Lin's homestay had only been open for about two months, and the scale was small.

Lin needed more people and I liked his ideas, so I quit my job and moved to Beigang. My parents didn't know about the village, even though they grew up in Pingtan, and they were very unhappy that I had given up a stable job and moved to the countryside.

In the past three years, we have extended the homestay, bit by bit. In the early days, we were the only homestay in Beigang and there was less competition. That gave us time to do something we liked and make it the best.

The team consists of 10 people, half from the mainland and half from Taiwan.
We are of similar ages and are passionate about our work.

In 2016, there were hardly any youngsters in the village, so when young people arrived from Taiwan and started renovating the old houses, they attracted a lot of attention from the local media.

The local people in the team have good relations with the villagers. Now everything is on track, Lin doesn't stay here all the time, so I am in charge of running the homestay.

Lin Yanhua spoke with Zhang Yi.