Under the blossoms, a village blooms

Chen Meimei, a 26-year-old from Shiyan, Hubei province, recently spent a weekend in Xinghua village in Danjiangkou, less than two hours away. She arrived just in time for the village's annual "Three Blossoms Festival", which celebrates the blooming of apricot, peach, and rape flowers — and the experience was unlike any she'd had before.

"All the orchards I'd visited in the past only allowed daytime tours, but Xinghua village offered nighttime strolls through the blossoms," she said. "The gentle evening breeze carried the fragrance of the flowers, which looked even more beautiful under the starlight."

Chen also stayed in one of the village's lodges nestled in the middle of an apricot orchard.

"I got to wake up to a sea of blossoms right outside my window," she said. "It was so refreshing."

Chen was one of more than 100,000 tourists who visited the village during this year's festival, which began on March 15, according to Wei Mingjun, a 30-year-old local entrepreneur.

Wei runs an e-commerce company focused on the village's organic apricots and kiwis. Through a mix of online and offline channels, he has steadily built the brand, generating around 150,000 yuan ($20,595) in offline sales and another 200,000 yuan online each year.

But Xinghua village's transformation into a rural tourism destination didn't happen overnight. Spanning 12.6 square kilometers and home to 2,657 residents, it once faced challenges common to many rural communities — a steady outflow of young people and poor transportation links. "The benefits of rural development through agriculture take time to show, making it difficult to attract or retain young talent with technical skills," Wei noted.