Centers of excellence

"It will be great if Go players at Tsinghua can join us in the competition which will be held in our village next month," says Li Lin, an adviser in the town who has lived in Dashuipo for years since moving from a big city. He was then followed by Liu Wenguang, an official of Dashuipo.

"To expand markets, attractive logos for our agricultural products are needed," he explains.

A wide range of topics including how to brighten the villages' environment and improve infrastructure were also discussed.

"The discussions are helpful. They help us get to know locals' needs and hear their requests when developing their villages," says Zhang, adding that such discussions will be held regularly as part of the station's work.

Dashuipo, a town made up of 89 villages with a total population of 40,000 people, is the largest town in Wendeng. It is the fourth base put into service by Tsinghua since 2017, when the university launched a campaign to promote rural revitalization around the country. The university plans to build a total of 19 rural revitalization stations in 14 provinces.

The reason to build the stations is to help promote the endogenous power of rural development.

"The stations provide a base for students staying in villages to carry out field research and other related activities. They get to know the village, then they know how to develop it," says Han Haoqing, secretary of the Communist Youth League of China at the School of Architecture at Tsinghua.