Students explore new drivers of rural growth in Chongqing

A student team from Sichuan International Studies University conducted field research on rural industries in Chongqing's Youyang county in July, amid China's push for rural revitalization.

The 14-member team focused on digital agriculture, traditional crafts and cultural tourism, visiting villages, intangible cultural heritage workshops and tourism projects across the county.

In Hejiayan village, the students visited a village history museum, a Miao embroidery workshop and terraced rice fields. The museum chronicled Hejiayan's transformation from poverty through the development of local industries.

At the embroidery workshop, the team studied an order-based production model and sales channels that provide local women with jobs close to home.

The students also studied the "Cloud Rice" adoption program for terraced paddies, which uses digital tools to better match supply with demand. Drawing on the university's foreign-language expertise, they produced multilingual promotional videos.

At an intangible cultural heritage workshop in Youzhou ancient town, the students tried their hand at making Xilankapu, a traditional brocade woven by the Tujia people, and sang Muye love songs. Their research also covered the integration of intangible cultural heritage into tourism.

Later in Gongtan ancient town, the team documented the Baishou Dance and an iron flower show, in which molten iron is thrown into the air to create fireworks. They also analyzed the integration of such traditional practices into modern tourism.

The visit to the Taohuayuan scenic area centered on the development of immersive tourism experiences based on imagery from Tao Yuanming's literary classic The Peach Blossom Spring and the area's ecological resources.