Rural tourism + homestay, revitalization in Dawan village

Aerial photos of Dawan village homestay

In the past, when people talked about Dawan village in Jinzhai county, Anhui province, they would think of those impoverished villages. Since 2016, the transportation department of Anhui has successively invested 22.45 million yuan (about 3.17 million U.S. dollars) to build 5 highway bridges and pave 60 kilometers of cement roads in the village, making it no longer difficult for villagers to move around.

After 2016, the village began to develop tourism under the idea of cultural tourism integration. In 2021, Dawan Village received a total of 350,000 tourists. The increasingly prosperous tourism industry has driven the development of the local agritainment industry. "Our village has a good environment and rich tourism resources." According to Wang Wenya, Secretary of the Party Committee of Huashi township, Jinzhai county, there used to be only 5 farmhouses in the village engaged in agritainment, now, there are nearly 50 households, and their income is relatively stable.

The agritainment in the village has also attracted many young people who have gone out to work to return to their hometown, and Xiong Xiaojuan is one of them.

Before July this year, Xiong Xiaojuan's family were all working in Hangzhou city, and she had been paying attention to suitable jobs in her hometown for a long time. By chance, she learned from chatting with her friends that rural tourism in her hometown is very hot, and there are many job opportunities. After discussing it with her family, she packed her luggage and returned to her hometown to work at a cliff restaurant.

"I didn't expect such a good opportunity in my hometown." Xiong Xiaojuan said that now she has a stable income and can take care of her parents at the same time, which is very cost-effective for her.

In the next step, Dawan Village will also build a fruit-picking garden to increase the income of surrounding farmers and promote the integration of agriculture and tourism.

Reported by Shi Ruiwen

Edited and translated by Zheng Chen