University graduate returns to revive village

While explaining her concept, Zhang said that she "just wanted to help villagers so they would be able to reap the benefits".

"Sanjia is a very ordinary rural community in Hebi. Unlike some other places, it's not located near a major township or provincial road," she said.

"We've had many ideas to advance development of our village, but limited money prevented us from planning anything big."

She thought the rainbow village idea would be the most cost-efficient project she could get going. The investment needed was small, the risk wasn't too great, and it had a higher return than expected.

"We anticipated that if it brought in tourists, even if all the villagers did was sell bottles of water or handmade noodles by the side of the road, they could make money," she said.

In part, that vision has come true. In early June, 25 tourists came to visit the rainbow village to take pictures and enjoy the paintings. "The street vendors sold a lot of bottled water," she said.

But as a young village head managing 700 permanent residents, Zhang's job has not always been easy, and she has considered resigning on several occasions.

"Every day there are endless things waiting for me to do, and there are no days off, which almost led me to fall apart," she said. "I wanted to speed up development, but at first, I didn't have a clear direction or focus for my efforts."

She often cried at mealtimes for the first two or three months and felt the future looked gloomy. In March, she seriously considered giving up altogether.

"It's very stressful," she said. "I'm frequently unsure of how to settle matters sensibly, and often, what the villagers said didn't make much sense."

She eased her anxiety by telling herself that no matter how hard things were, she would hold on for another month.