Villages in Peril: tourists to the rescue

Unabara Mie (center), 64-year-old Japanese tourist, poses with actors and actresses in traditional costumes in Poyang traditional street in Suoyuan village, Jinhua.[Photo provided to China Daily]

Overseas tourists help promote and preserve China's traditional villages

Unabara Mie loves traveling. This July, she had a brand new traveling experience in Jinhua, Zhejiang province.

The 64-year-old Japanese spent 21 days in a homestay in a traditional village in the city, experiencing traditional Chinese culture and offering her suggestions on how to promote the village as a foreign visitor.

Mie was one of the 42 visitors from 15 countries who participated in Jinhua's project to promote its traditional villages. Apart from sight-seeing and experiencing local culture in Suoyuan village, Mie and her fellow participants were assigned missions.

They were divided into five groups to accomplish five tasks during their 21 days' stay in Jinhua. These included making a map and a tourism brochure for the villages, translating traffic signs and reading materials into their native languages, providing suggestions to homestay development of the villages, and designing promotional websites that will appeal to foreign visitors.

The program is a part of Jinhua's efforts to better protect its traditional villages. Located in central Zhejiang province, the city has 195 traditional Chinese villages. Some are well preserved, but others are run down.

How to preserve the traditional villages, while developing them into attractions to bring in tourists from home and abroad, has become a concern for the local government.

Xu Jia'ai, Party secretary of the city, says that protecting and developing these villages with international participation is an important step.

"We know that there are overseas tourists who are interested in such traditional villages in China, but how to present them in a way that will appeal to them is a big challenge," he said. "Instead of us telling stories via the media, we thought why not invite them to come and see them for themselves."

Xu says what the city wants to show to overseas tourists is the traditional villages at their most authentic moments. All the 42 participants stayed with local families.