China’s rural revival has a star village — but can others follow?

“I used to sell stones, and I still do, but now it means something different. Previously, selling stones polluted the environment. But now, I’m actually selling art.”

Standing in front of a wall filled with stone artworks at his homestay, Yucun (余村) villager Ge Yuande smiles as he introduces the artworks. The wall displays a variety of uniquely shaped, whimsical stones. His favourite is one carved to resemble a white radish.

In mid-June, I joined a media tour organised by China’s State Council Information Office to visit Anji county in Huzhou, Zhejiang province. Yucun was one of the stops.

Ge, who was once a miner, has now become a stone artist. He runs the “Two Mountains Cultural & Creative Hub” (两山文创阁) homestay together with his son Ge Jun.

Ge Jun, who had previously worked in Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang province, returned to his hometown a decade ago to start his own business, drawn by its improved environment and growing tourist appeal. Like his father, he has a gift for art and now teaches calligraphy and painting at the homestay.

Their story reflects Yucun’s shift from resource dependency to eco-cultural tourism.

In the 1990s, Yucun had become the wealthiest village in Anji county by blasting mountains to build lime kilns and setting up cement factories. However, this came at the cost of severe environmental pollution.

Yucun party secretary Wang Yucheng recalled that villagers gradually realised that mineral resources were limited and that unchecked development was causing serious ecological damage. His own father developed stomach stones from long-term dust inhalation and eventually had two-thirds of his stomach removed.

In 2003, then Zhejiang party secretary Xi Jinping launched the “Thousand Villages Demonstration, Ten Thousand Villages Renovation” project across the province, and Anji county swiftly adopted an ecological development strategy. Under this new direction, Yucun shut down its mines and cement factories and began exploring a path of green development.

During a 2005 visit to Yucun, Xi first proposed the idea that “lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets”. After taking leadership in 2012, he prioritised environmental protection alongside economic growth. The concept has since been repeatedly emphasised, included in key Party Congress reports, and written into the Communist Party constitution.

Today, Yucun has transformed from a mining village into an eco-cultural tourism destination. It has also actively promoted regional cooperation in recent years. Tianhuangping town, where Yucun is located, has partnered with nearby Shangshu and Shanchuan townships to integrate 24 administrative villages into a “Greater Yucun” (大余村) area covering 245 square kilometres.

Wang said, “Our 24 villages across one town and two townships are developing together by leveraging the calling card of Yucun to help surrounding villages move toward common prosperity.”

Data shows that Yucun has around 1,080 permanent residents, with an average annual income of 74,000 RMB (about US$10,343) last year, well above the rural average in Zhejiang.

In 2021, China declared a complete victory in eradicating absolute poverty and the establishment of a moderately prosperous society in all respects, marking the beginning of efforts to “solidly promote common prosperity”. That same year, Zhejiang was designated as a demonstration zone for common prosperity.

Narrowing the urban-rural gap is one of the three core goals of achieving common prosperity; in this regard, Zhejiang has made remarkable progress. Income disparity between urban and rural residents in Zhejiang decreased from 2.43 times in 2004 to 1.83 times in 2024, making it the province with the smallest gap in the country.

As a benchmark for rural transformation, Yucun has now become a reference point for officials across all areas in China to “imitate”. Wang remarked that villages nationwide view Yucun as a development model. “We are under a lot of pressure to do even better,” he added.

However, Yucun’s successful transformation is tied to Zhejiang’s solid economic foundation and robust policy support — conditions which other regions might not have.

Associate Professor of Sociology Forrest Zhang from the School of Social Sciences, Singapore Management University (SMU) pointed out to Lianhe Zaobao that Zhejiang’s solid economic foundation and active local enterprises provided strong support for rural revitalisation. Furthermore, during his tenure in Zhejiang, Xi launched the Green Rural Revival Program, which struck out new pathways for rural development through large-scale financial investment.

However, Zhang said candidly that “it is without a doubt difficult to reach Zhejiang’s level. Many local governments lack such financial strength and private capital, and rural villages do not have the same conditions as Zhejiang.”

Initially, Zhejiang’s Green Rural Revival Program covered around 10,000 administrative villages, before expanding to 40,000 villages across the entire province. Over 20 years, the various levels of government have invested more than 200 billion RMB in village renovation and in construction to beautify the countryside. The “No. 1 central document” for 2024 explicitly proposed promoting the experience of the Green Rural Revival Program nationwide, to push forward comprehensive rural revitalisation.

Chen Jingjing, founder of Tusheng Management Consulting Studio, commented when interviewed that coastal regions such as Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Shanghai possess well-developed infrastructure and financial capabilities, enabling them to support rural development. However, in comparison, central and western provinces are severely lacking in areas such as finances, industry and administrative capacity.

Chen also noted that the primary source of income for Chinese farmers was not agriculture, but rather employment opportunities generated by urbanisation and industrialisation. Hence, many farmers move between urban and rural areas in a bid to secure better living conditions. This also explained why China’s urbanisation rate continues to rise, while rural areas face the challenging reality of population outflow.

This year marked the 20th anniversary of Xi’s “Two Mountains” theory. Academics interviewed argue that, rather than relying only on policy and resources, a mindset shift is crucial to achieving a win-win situation for both ecology and economy in rural China.

Professor Tong Zhihui from the School of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development at Renmin University of China pointed out that some local officials and villagers still hold outdated beliefs that prioritise the economy over the environment, with a poor understanding of ecological value, which meant that traditional development paths and lifestyles would be hard to to change entirely in the short term.

Chen also believes that the key to truly realising the concept of “lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets” lies in the effective alignment of urban consumption demands and national development strategies. Without industrial support, convenient transportation and competent public services, “lucid waters and lush mountains” could also become “barren mountains and impoverished rivers”.

This article was first published in Lianhe Zaobao as “向浙江余村抄作业？中国农村转型的挑战”.

Related: [Big read] Durians, tea and livestreams: Can rural China power its 2035 modernisation dream? | Why Chinese investors are racing to plant durians in Southeast Asia