Illustration: Liu Xiangya/GT

A Spring Festival gala was recently held at Xuanya Village, or Cliffside Village, a once poor village in the Liangshan Yi autonomous prefecture in Southwest China's Sichuan Province. 

Featuring tourists and villagers enjoying entertainment together under fluorescent lights, the scene would have been unimaginable in 2017 if a 2,556-step steel ladder had not been built to provide better access to the local community, or if cultural tourism programs had not begun to flourish in recent years in the village.    

No matter if it is the ladder or the village's tourism programs like the one called "Sky Valley," without local innovation, Cliffside Village's situation would never have turned around due to its severe natural environment. 

Dwelling on the top of a cliff,  Cliffside Village in Zhaojue county was once associated with keywords like "impoverished," "remote" and "unreachable" mainly due to its challenging almost vertical 90-degree location. 

Today these distinct characteristics helped make it a tourist attraction. 

Through the steel ladder, visitors can now stay over at the village's "Sky Valley," which offers 101 guest rooms, authentic music performances and cuisine unique to the Yi ethnic group. 

People can also stream events online using their mobile devices, since the village now has full 5G and Wi-Fi coverage. 

What allowed such a promising transformation to take shape? China's efforts in poverty alleviation and rural revitalization were two of the deciding driving forces guiding this village in finding its strengths step by step. 

Before the advent of cultural tourism in the village, in 2020, the country's poverty alleviation efforts resettled 84 households in the village in new homes with much better conditions.  

Following that, several rural revitalization programs saw success, including cultural tourism campaigns and more than 3,200 local villagers started to work in the village's tourism sector.  

Against the backdrop of rural populations migrating to cities for job opportunities, the fact that the residents of Cliffside Village were still willing to return home to contribute to their roots actually means a lot. 

Rural revitalization has done more than just improving conditions there, it has also brought meaningful change to residents' lives. 

Through the innovative transformation of China's rural resources, the "village," "villagers" and "policy support" have found themselves bound together in a reciprocal relationship. 

Any village in China, no matter how "impossible" it may be, can achieve similar growth like Cliff Village as long as it can find its own niche resource. 

Fortunately, China's rural diversity has made such niches easily identifiable. 

Relying on its farmhouse dishes like smoked bacon bums and intangible cultural heritage (ICH) ­traditions like shadow puppetry and Chinese New Year paintings, Zhangguying Village in ­Central China's Hunan Province is now popular for hosting a "Spring Festival gala," also known as "cun wan."  

Taking ­inspiration from the Shui ethnic group's horse racing tradition, "cun ma," also known as "village horse racing," has become one of the Sandu Shui autonomous county's iconic touristic attractions. 

Although diverse, these rural resources share one thing in common: They capitalize on a particular village's indigenous folk tradition and culture. 

Putting cultural narratives at the ­center of rural revitalization is significant since a village's newly built facilities or newly launched cultural tourism programs may become outdated, but its cultural character and folk traditions can still be inherited in the future. 

In recent years, taking "cultural character" as a starting point for tourism development has become a strategy for many rural areas. 

"Ethnic aesthetics" is one of the means of success that villages close to Kaili in the Qiandongnan Miao and Dong autonomous prefecture, Southwest China's Guizhou Province, have used.  

The local mixed-ethnic embroidery traditions feature traditions from the Miao, Dong and Zhuang ethnic groups. 

Such assorted aesthetics have made the locals able to develop a "cun T," meaning "village fashion show" that catches tourists' attention. 

The unique attributes of "ethnic aesthetics" can be seen not only in fashion shows, but also in cultural activities that get the public to learn more about China's ethnic cultural diversity. 

"We must seek new ways to promote our culture, such as Miao Embroidery. No matter how beautiful is our needlework, people still won't see us if we are not willing to embrace collaboration with the cultural tourism industry," Yang Chunlin, a young local Miao embroidery designer, told the Global Times. 

The author is a reporter with the Global Times. life@globaltimes.com.cn