Editor's note: After absolute poverty was eradicated in 2021, the focus of Three Rural Issues (agriculture, rural areas and farmers) shifted to comprehensively promote rural revitalization. Villages across the country have been exploring their unique features and the best way to achieve prosperity. Let's take a look.

Rural tourism

Songmiao village in the county of Lingchuan, Shanxi province, uses a companies-plus-households operational model to drive its rural tourism business and help residents increase income.

In 2020, a rural tourism industrial chain that includes rural sightseeing, recreation, catering and accommodation was established with investment from an agricultural investment company in the county.

A range of tourism facilities, including lodges, paths for cycling and walking and roads to connect the village and its neighboring areas, were completed in August 2020, marking the beginning of Songmiao's tourism industry.

The industry is operated by a village cooperative, which has all the households as its stakeholders.

In addition to the cooperative, villagers are also encouraged to start and operate their own tourism-related businesses.

Wang Wenqing, who had been working outside Songmiao for more than two decades, returned to his home village in 2020 and established his own bed-and-breakfast business in the same year, with a low-interest loan from a local bank. He earned a net income of more than 100,000 yuan ($15,830) after only half a year's operation.

Rural tourism is used by many villages with good natural landscape during their rural revitalization drive. Until now, China's Ministry of Culture and Tourism has released several lists of key rural tourism villages and townships, consisting 1,299 in total.