Villages hit their goals

Sports carnivals, ethnic culture and pristine natural environments are breathing new life into large swaths of rural China.

In late October, in downtown Rongjiang, Wang Xiantao raised her voice to be heard over the noise from the soccer pitch.

Amateur players from across the country gathered in the county, located in Qiandongnan Miao and Dong autonomous prefecture, Southwest China's Guizhou province, to compete against one another, filling the stands with visitors and drawing a huge amount of online viewers.

Wang vigorously introduced local rural specialities, including red bayberry juice, at one of the pitch-side booths, as thousands of viewers flocked to her online broadcast.

"Thanks to the popularity of the village soccer game, many people from outside know us and our products," she says.

Wang started to engage in livestream sales of local farm produce last year.

"Previously, we could only live off the land, raising pigs and fowl," she says.

"Now we can engage in agricultural production and promote our products to the outside world, which has given us extra income," she says.

Wang calls herself a new digital farmer, and there were at least 1,000 of her peers alongside her at the October invitational tournament.

The Rongjiang Village Super League, also known as Cunchao, has put the county on the map. Starting on May 13 and concluding on July 29, the league features 20 amateur teams drawn from local villages. The event became a national sensation, and a deal was recently struck with the English Premier League which will see the EPL provide training courses to the league, and promote soccer development in the area.