Higher incomes

June to August is the peak tourist season in Tacheng every year. Family groups and visitors from all over the world come one after another, often overwhelming the homestays in the town.

During peak season, the price of a homestay room is generally around 1,000 yuan ($140), but it is lower in the offseason. He Qingmei said that over the course of the year, the homestay brings in about 200,000 yuan in income, which is exceptionally high for local farmers.

He Qingmei is a Communist Party member, and she currently serves as an organizational secretary in Tacheng.

She shuttles between villages in her daily work to talk to people. She said that the Party branch activities are rich and diverse, and people of all ethnic groups are united. There is a Party emblem on every piece of clothing she wears, irrespective of whether it is Tibetan or Naxi attire.

Chen Zhaojiang, deputy secretary of the Tacheng Party Committee, said: "The development of cultural tourism has made a significant contribution to poverty alleviation in the town. Before the national poverty alleviation campaign, the per capita annual income of Qibie village was about 4,000 yuan.

We began to develop homestays in about 2015. In 2019, Tacheng achieved comprehensive poverty alleviation, and now the villagers' per capita annual income is more than 10,000 yuan.

"What's even more special is many people who left the village to become migrant workers have been returning. Many young people from the mountains went to the cities to work. Now, we see that the tourism industry in our hometown is developing well, so those talented individuals who left the village in the early days have now returned and helped develop various industries."

He added that in addition to building homestays, some of the residents have opened restaurants, established livestock farms and developed sales of agricultural produce, which has greatly boosted Tacheng's economic development.

In recent years, Tacheng has been awarded the title of "Advanced Collective in Yunnan Province's Poverty Alleviation Campaign", designated as "A Town with Ethnic Cultural Characteristics" and as an "Exemplary Town for National Ethnic Unity" in Yunnan.

It has also been selected as one of the 100 demonstration towns for rural vitalization in the province.

Meanwhile, Qibie has been designated as a key national village for rural tourism.

Contact the writer at yandongjie@chinadaily.com.cn