A breath of mountain air

The town of Sandouping in Yichang.[Photo provided to China Daily]

Ai's son is now building a better-equipped farmhouse inn so they can expand their business to cover both dining and accommodation.

The new structure, which has three stories, costs the family more than 300,000 yuan.

"Our family is now focusing on agri-tainment," says Ai.

Even his grandson is trying to promote the family's business using WeChat, a popular app in China.

During the low season, Ai and his family members do farm work.

The family owns less than 0.3 hectare of land, on which they grow corn, potatoes or rapeseed.

As more visitors come to their village, products such as rapeseed oil have become popular with tourists and bring them income.

"The guests like to eat homegrown vegetables and free-range chickens," says Ai.

Ai adds that earlier the family used to depend solely on farming and earn about 10,000 yuan per year before they turned to tourism.

"But agri-tainment brings in much more money and entails less hard work compared with farming," Ai adds.

Meanwhile, according to Liu, many families are now operating farmhouse restaurants, inns and parking lots in the village.

He adds that the village also plans to add a mulberry plantation of 67 hectares for fruit picking to its current tourist assets.

Separately, the village will introduce more farm crops that can be used to make products which can be sold to tourists.

Rural tourism has now become a critical part of the local tourist industry and will be the main focus of the town's tourism promotion in the future, says Wang Hua, the head of the town's government.