By using the "Culture and Tourism e-Village" program, which can be found on WeChat, visitors now can enjoy the sightseeing of 1,594 villages and 877 townships in East China's Jiangsu province on their phones.
The program, developed by the Jiangsu Cultural Center under the guidance of the public service division of the Jiangsu provincial department of culture and tourism, has been popularly received by visitors and farmers since it was released in June 2020.
It consists of several parts, such as memories of the village, rural tourism, e-commerce of cultural tourism, livestream promotions and voluntary service.
For visitors, it gives introductions, pictures and travel guidance of many villages for them to choose from. It allows visitors to watch videos of the villages, learn about their histories and attractions, buy specialties and book homestay hotels.
They may also appreciate some villages by using the visual reality technology. For example, Qingdun village of Hai'an city has used the technology to upload the whole village on the program.
Travelers interested in Qingdun can learn about the village's rural culture, landscapes and other attractions by simply clicking on the screen.
For farmers, it allows them to publicize the charm and beauty of their hometown, join online training to improve their prospects and participate more actively in the villages' cultural and tourism activities.
"I sell more grapes and strawberries by using the program," said Zhang Feng, a villager from Baitu township, which literally means White Bunny township, in Zhenjiang city. "I have faith in the quality of my agricultural products, but I had trouble selling them. The township is now known to more people after it's promoted on the program, including being adopted in the program. Nowadays, publicity means money. Many villagers have lived a better life with the White Bunny township becoming famous.
"We not only have grapes, strawberries and dragon fruit, we also have endless sorghum fields, feathery reed flowers and plum blossoms that are barely seen in other places.
"Our township grows 200 hectares of strawberries," said the 50-year-old man. "We received more than 200,000 travelers during last year's Spring Festival. You're more than welcome to our township to pick up the strawberries and enjoy the flowers."
After the program started operation, it has helped several villages to shoot rural cultural tourism promotional films and explore local customs to better show their tourism resources and boost their development.
To attract more users, the program also holds various forms of online activities, including short video competitions, cultural products designs and photography competitions.
According to the Jiangsu Cultural Center, the program will cooperate with more national and provincial key tourism villages that locate in Jiangsu in the future to promote the high quality development of the province's rural tourism.
