Village nurtures prosperity

The 55-year-old once left the village and worked as a mason, and now he receives 100 yuan daily.

Moreover, Meng received a second dividend from the cooperative in January.

"It's nice to have a steady income, and I feel way better than before," Meng says.

His wife and elderly son have also managed to make a living through tourism development.

Now, his wife is selling distinctive local farm produce on a bustling street, where visitors can feast on traditional Va food from some 30 booths, including black tea, preserved fruits and cakes, as well as enjoy handmade artworks. Meng's son works as a tour bus driver.

The restaurant was a joint effort between the cooperative and an independent company, and as part of the joint operation of the restaurant, the cooperative will be given 150,000 yuan for rent annually.

When the profit exceeds 375,000 yuan a year, the cooperative will get 40 percent of it, according to Zhao.

In addition to the restaurant, over the past two years, barbecues and homestays have also been developed this way to boost integration of first, second and tertiary industries.

So far, more than 1,000 villagers have been employed because of the cooperative operations, and altogether they have received an extra income of more than 5 million yuan.

Along with those improvements came the increasing number of tourists.

Zhang Ninghai from Hangzhou, capital of East China's Zhejiang province, chose Simola as the first stop of his journey to Tengchong during the Spring Festival holiday this year.

He was impressed by the pastoral scenes and took many photos of the village during his stay.

"The afternoon wind caresses the rapeseed flowers in the distance, sending waves of golden blossoms to the boundary of the sky," Zhang recalls.

Zhang also dined at Meng's restaurant, which was built against a mountain. The big banyan tree, the tracery, and gray walls have been etched into his memory.

In the tea section of the restaurant, a sunken fire pit is surrounded by long ivory white sofas.

"It's a collision of simplicity and modernity," he says.

Simola received about 470,000 tourist visits during 2020 and last year, with a collective income of 308,000 yuan, about 77 times that of 2019, according to local authorities.

Per capita income reached 17,826 yuan, up 55.5 percent as compared with that in 2019.

Zhao says Simola will continue to develop distinctive rural products that can be taken away by visitors as gifts, as well as carry forward folk arts through staged performances.

"The goal is to improve public income and realize rural vitalization," he says.