Farm spaces become tourist spots

Yang said the village was left behind during modernization. In 2016, there were only 100 people in the village as compared with a population of over 700 before, as people left the village in search for a better life.

The environment in the village was one factor that pushed young people away.

Yang said sewage used to flow freely on the ground and messy electric wires hung in the air like spider webs, not to mention the stinky animal pens.

The village's campaign for tourism development was unleashed via a government sponsored poverty alleviation project in 2016 when the township government invited architecture experts from the Central Academy of Fine Arts and Tsinghua University to help roll out a sketch of the tourist village based on Shangping's resources.

Zhou Bin, Party chief of Xiyuan township, said that as a planned tourist attraction, Shangping must have tourist facilities and upgraded infrastructure such as waste treatment and power lines.

A total of 30 million yuan has been invested in rehabbing obsolete and uninhabited buildings into tourist facilities.

During the May Day holiday earlier this month, the small village received some 2,000 tourists.

As tourists wander into the village, they are amused to find pig sties turned into bars, an old tobacco-making workshop transformed into a teahouse and an exhibition hall displaying exhibits of the village's past with old furniture, household items and tools.

The thriving tourism has brought entrepreneurial opportunities, and the village has seen many villagers returning. There are some 300 locals in the village now.

Li Zongyan, 31, is one of them. After working in the port city of Quanzhou for years, she came home and started a restaurant in September.

"Starting a business at home gives me the perfect balance between family and work," Li said. She receives some 20 reservations for dinner on average a day.

Zhou said a 100-kilometer highway is under construction, which would make traffic to the scenic and historical village more convenient.

Xinhua