Photo shows a view of Siping village, Pingnan county, Ningde city, southeast China's Fujian Province. (People's Daily Online/Lan Zhifei) Neat houses, small bridges and flowing creeks create a picturesque scene of traditional dwellings among green hills in Siping village, southeast China's Fujian Province. Tourists flock to this idyllic spot, seeking a taste of rural Chinese life.
The scene was starkly different seven years ago, said Pan Jia'en, deputy head of the Institute for Rural Revitalization Strategy at Southwest University in Chongqing Municipality. Before promoting rural revitalization through cultural and creative industries in 2017, the village had fewer than 20 residents, most of them elderly, according to Pan, a native of Ningde city, where Siping is located. Photo shows a view of Siping village, Pingnan county, Ningde city, southeast China's Fujian Province.
(People's Daily Online/Lan Zhifei) The turnaround began in 2017 when Pingnan county started attracting talent and renovating ancient dwellings to transform the nearly empty village. This strategy caught the eye of Pan and his team when they surveyed the village in 2020, inspiring him to dig deeper into the mechanics of rural revitalization and bring more new ideas and energy to the village. "The beautiful landscape and rich cultural heritage here struck a chord with me.
I'd like to stay and help further leverage rural history and culture to contribute my part to Pingnan county's rural revitalization," he said.