Pingnan tourism officials offering eco-friendly villages

( chinadaily.com.cn )

Updated: 2013-01-17

There’s a river, where the carp, big and small, swim about freely, where old waterwheels revolve slowly, where a couple chat peacefully on an old covered bridge, and, wonderfully, a place where tourists can enjoy themselves freely in a picturesque scene.

It’s Jixia, a village in Pingnan county, in the southeastern Chinese province of Fujian. Jixia, and another village Jitou, have become quite prominent in recent years, thanks to their Chinese status as Famous Historical, Cultural Villages. Larger numbers of tourists have come to get a look at their unique, classical rural architecture, giving Pingnan a new calling card. It was already known for its Baishuiyang and Yuanyangxi scenic spots.

Now, Pingnan is focusing on its mountain agriculture and eco-tourism, and is building eco-friendly, historical, cultural villages and towns. The government is putting 200 million yuan ($32.14 million) into village roads and waterworks, two major local problems, with additional funding from the villagers. It has also installed cable TV and a broadband hook-up for better communications and built better sanitation facilities, public toilets, landfills, and trash bins.

In addition to this environmental improvement work, some of the old villages and their interesting architecture and residences are getting a renovation touch. So far, 34 of Pingnan’s villages are “province-level eco-friendly” and Jixia, Jitou, and Tangkou villages have been named Famous Historical, Cultural Villages, while Shuangxi is a Famous Old Town.

So, Pingnan’s villages are now more developed and more advertised, and their leisure approach to tourism has caught on. In the first 11 months of 2012, the county had 1.24 million tourists and earned a record 882 million yuan from the business.

Edited by Lin Hong, Chen Chen and Roger Bradshaw