Bailin Town in Pingyi County leverages its location within the 5A scenic area of the Yimeng Mountain Turtle Peak Scenic Area to actively guide local villagers in participating in rural tourism and related industries, promoting investment, development, and employment, and comprehensively advancing the development of the rural tourism industry.
Welcome to the live stream, friends! We are currently at Lijia Shiwucun in Pingyi County.” Every day at 10 a.m., Liu Ting, the owner of Shuiyun Pavilion in Lijia Shiwucun, starts her daily live broadcast on Douyin. “I mainly showcase the scenery here and the specialties of our restaurant. It’s very popular; many customers contact me directly after watching my live stream to come visit us.” When she first married into Lijia Shiwucun, the village had no decent roads, and residents relied on growing fruit trees for a living. At that time, about 90% of the young people in Lijia Shiwucun, like Liu Ting and her husband, worked outside, turning the village into a veritable hollow village.
Surrounded by mountains and rich in natural vegetation, Lijia Shiwucun boasts a beautiful ecological environment. To fully utilize this advantage and turn beautiful scenery into economic benefits, Bailin Town has raised funds to build tourism infrastructure such as water routes, electricity, and communications, along with constructing water platforms and walking paths to create unique stone architecture-style ancient villages. Once the infrastructure was established, village leaders took the initiative to open agritourism businesses and guesthouses, focusing on local specialties such as Mengshan grass chicken and wild vegetables, offering pure, organic dishes. Visitors could not only enjoy the beautiful scenery but also taste delicious, pollution-free food, quickly bringing benefits to rural tourism in Lijia Shiwucun, transforming the village from a hollow village into a “internet-famous village.”
Seeing the village improve day by day, Liu Ting and her husband quit their jobs in Beijing and returned to open an agritourism business using their own home. They promoted their business through new media platforms like Kuaishou and Douyin, and their business has become increasingly popular. “Now that we’re in the peak tourist season, our restaurant is truly hard to book. In just two months, our income has matched what we made in a year in Beijing,” Liu Ting told reporters. Today, Lijia Shiwucun has over 20 guesthouses and agritourism restaurants, receiving about 120,000 tourists annually, generating over 100,000 yuan in collective income for the village, and increasing the average income of villagers by over 30,000 yuan. Many villagers who had worked away have also returned home.
To attract more tourists, Bailin Town is also integrating beautiful rural construction, carrying out comprehensive improvements in the living environment, enhancing supporting infrastructure, and planning for agritourism businesses. They are making full use of natural scenery, pastoral landscapes, village residences, food culture, and folk culture to create an ecologically beautiful environment for agritourism.
With ecological empowerment and industry-driven prosperity, the integration and development of rural tourism and rural revitalization further promote increased income and wealth for the people. A new picturesque “scroll” of rural revitalization, characterized by clear mountains and rivers and vibrant life, is slowly unfolding in Bailin.