Coming home to Yangshuo

Homestays have created a way for farmers to get a slice of the tourism industry's cake.

Zheng Jiancheng, a farmer in Huashan village of Yangshuo, opened a two-room homestay in 2015. It now has eight rooms. He says his earnings from the homestay is about five times his farmland revenue.

Around 20 out of 70 families in the village run homestays; even the remaining ones rent out their place sometimes.

Tourists are also invited to pick fruits in the farmers' orchards. With a large influx of tourists, farmers are less bothered about what to do with their yield. Liao Dongxiu, a 62-yearold farmer in Liandaowan village of Yangshuo, who manages an orange orchard, said: "Ever since tourists began arriving, we have stopped bothering about picking up the fruits ourselves, as tourists love to do it for us. And the oranges also get sold quickly."

Zhang Xiaoyang, deputy Party chief of Yangshuo, said the homestays not only create jobs for some impoverished farmers, but also help them sell their agricultural produce, thus becoming an important tool for poverty alleviation in the county.

Some homestays are renovated houses that are hundreds of years old and invariably located in the mountains or beside the rivers.

Chen Ronghua, who owns six homestays in Yangshuo, pays special attention to ensuring any alteration during renovation gels well with the natural landscape and overall construction style. The more "invisible" a homestay is, the more attractive it becomes, he says.

Almost all homestay owners in Yangshuo are unanimous about carefully preserving the environment, ecology and way of life in the villages.

No wonder many tourists find their county experience memorable. Wirral Walker, who was Chen's guest, said on TripAdvisor: "The scenery stunning with the karst peaks overlooking the swimming pool. It provided us with images of China we will never forget."

For the farmers, the thriving homestay industry brings more than jobs and money. It brings with it a modern way of life.

Sandee, the tourist from Beijing, said the services provided by the villagers in the homestays are different from the hospitality one sees in city hotels. "It makes you feel you are cared for," Sandee says. "For instance, they will greet you like a family member and take the initiative to help when they fear you might get caught in the rain or lose yourself in the mountains."

Wang Jie, a tourist guide in Yangshuo, said locals regard tourists as their friends, or even family members, which not only brings them more regular customers but also makes them happy.

Fang Quanxing, vice-chair of Guilin Homestay Association, attributes the success of Yangshuo's homestay industry to the involvement of the younger generation.

"The young people can change a whole village's fate, as they have a stronger desire to pursue a better life and are more skilled in using the internet to sniff business opportunities," Fang says.

"It is the young people who have injected vitality into the villages by exploring ways to bridge their hometown and the outside world. And it is this special experience that Yangshuo offers that is pulling tourists from around the world."

According to Zhou Yan, head of the Yangshuo local government, the government introduced a regulation in 2018 to better regulate the homestay industry's development. The same year, a homestay association was founded in the county, which has now become an effective platform for the industry to strengthen self-regulation and exchanges among its members.

Li Ziyu and Wu Yijun in Yangshuo contributed to this story.