An entrepreneurial space for youth in Yucun Village (COURTESY)

Villager Pan Chunlin is witnessing a boom in his homestay business. More and more visitors are coming to his village, Yucun Village in Anji County, Huzhou City, Zhejiang Province. 

“They’re staying longer and longer, and many of them simply don’t want to leave,” he said. 

Last year, his guesthouse received more than 70,000 visitors, generating over 4 million yuan ($573,000) in revenue. Such figures would have been hard to imagine two decades ago. Today, however, they are emblematic of a broader transformation unfolding across Zhejiang’s countryside, one driven by a new model of rural development known as area-based cluster development. 

In 2023, Yucun joined forces with 23 surrounding villages to form what is now known as the “Greater Yucun.” By pooling resources, planning together, and complementing each other’s strengths, the villages have extended tourism beyond a single destination. Visitors who once confined their trips to Yucun now explore a much broader rural area. 

This shift marks a new stage in Zhejiang’s long-running rural revitalisation efforts. The “Thousand Villages Demonstration and Ten Thousand Villages Renovation” project, launched in 2003, transformed thousands of villages through environmental improvement. As villages became cleaner and more attractive, a new challenge arose: fragmented resources and weak standalone industries. Zhejiang’s answer was for villages to develop collectively. 

In January this year, the provincial CPC committee and government released an implementation plan that explicitly identified rural cluster development as a key method to narrow development gaps and promote common prosperity. 

A flourishing region 

In the 1980s and 1990s, Yucun grew rapidly thanks to mining and producing cement, becoming Anji’s wealthiest village. The prosperity, however, came at a heavy ecological cost. Mountains were scarred, dust filled the air, and forests were stripped bare. 

In 2003, the village made a painful but decisive choice to close its mines and cement factories and search for a new development path. Pan Chunlin, once a tractor driver at a mine, opened Yucun’s first agritourism venue in 2004. But business was not good. With the environment still degraded, few tourists came, and Pan was in debt. 

The turning point came in August 2005, when Xi Jinping, then secretary of the CPC Zhejiang Provincial Committee, visited Yucun and articulated the now-famous concept that “lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets.” The statement became a guiding principle for Yucun’s transformation and gave villagers like Pan the confidence to persevere. 

Through sustained environmental restoration and a focus on eco-tourism, Yucun gradually reinvented itself. In 2021, it was named one of the first Best Tourism Villages by the UN World Tourism Organisation. 

However, success brought new constraints. Covering just 4.86 square km, Yucun soon found itself unable to accommodate a growing number of visitors. Meanwhile, neighbouring villages with equally attractive landscapes remained largely overlooked. 

How could leading villages overcome their own constraints, while neighbouring villages share in the opportunities they create? Cluster development emerged as the answer. 

In 2023, the Greater Yucun cluster was formally established, spanning 245 square km and encompassing Yucun along with 23 surrounding villages. Planning was unified, but each village developed its own distinctive focus. Yinkeng Village explored film and television-themed tourism. Maji Village highlighted its revolutionary heritage. Henglu Village developed water-based recreation. Differentiated offerings turned a half-day visit into stays of two or three days, creating a year-round tourism ecosystem. 

The results have been striking. In 2024, Yucun alone received 1.22 million visitors, while the Greater Yucun cluster welcomed over 10 million. Total tourism revenue reached 10 billion yuan ($1.4 billion). Average annual collective income from business operations across the 24 villages rose to 2.82 million yuan ($402,000), an increase of 11.5 percent year on year. 

Across Zhejiang, similar transformations are under way. Examples include Greater Xiajiang and Greater Sanxing, where renowned villages are leveraging brand influence and shared resources to drive development across entire regions. 

A stone carved with the phrase “lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets” in Yucun Village (LIU TING) 

Attracting young people 

“A new development pattern needs new industries, and new industries depend on young people,” says Yu Xiaoping, deputy secretary of the CPC Yucun Branch. 

To draw young talent, Yucun launched its Global Partners Initiative and repurposed idle buildings across the cluster into shared entrepreneurial spaces. One flagship hub, Youth to Rally, provides start-ups with end-to-end support services. More than 60 new-economy projects and partner teams have moved in. Today, more than 1,200 young professionals work in the area regularly. 

Changqin Village in Yuxin Town, Nanhu District of Jiaxing City, offers another example. Two years ago, it was a conventional farming village, dominated by rice paddies and vacant old houses. Today, rice-field guesthouses, pet-friendly parks and a youth-themed rural market coexist, offering visitors genuine pastoral experiences. 

This transformation was driven by coordinated development across a six-village demonstration cluster launched in 2023. As the core village in the cluster, Changqin introduced the Youth Village Partners scheme to attract young people back to the countryside and create local jobs. 

According to Xu Zhiqiang, secretary of the CPC Changqin Committee and village head, most of the 50 youth partners are entrepreneurs born after 1990 and 2000, with local villagers making up 80 percent. Their return has energised rural tourism and strengthened the wider Yuxin Town economy. In 2024, average collective income across the town’s villages rose by 21.7 percent, with each village reporting operating income of more than 1.2 million yuan ($171,000). 

Forming companies 

A major obstacle in cluster development is the administrative separation between villages. Zhejiang has tackled this through Party-led coordination, aligning policies and combining resources. 

In Xiaopu Town, Changxing County, the Baduka Scenic Area is home to 30,000 ancient ginkgo trees across five villages. For years, each village managed its own area independently, leading to fragmented planning, limited services and a lack of diversity in attractions. 

In 2019, the five villages, under the leadership of the town Party committee, established a joint company to develop their scenic resources together. New attractions, including a glass skywalk and ginkgo valley rafting, were launched, while villages were encouraged to create distinctive experiences such as ginkgo-themed cuisine, folk performances and family study tours. 

What were once isolated attractions have now become a unified destination. In 2024, the Baduka Scenic Area received over 1.53 million visitors and generated 245 million yuan ($35 million) in comprehensive tourism revenue. Average collective operating income across the villages reached 2.2 million yuan ($314,000). 

Zhejiang has increasingly relied on such companies as platforms for market-oriented operations. In June 2023, multiple provincial departments jointly issued policies to provide institutional support for these companies’ healthy development. 

“The potential for rural revitalisation lies in clustering,” said Wang Tonglin, head of the provincial Agriculture and Rural Affairs Department. 

Looking ahead to the next five-year plan, Zhejiang aims to strengthen cluster development as a central strategy for rural revitalisation. The province plans to establish 500 key village clusters, extending benefits to more than 3,000 villages. The goal is an integrated model combining scenic cohesion, clustered industries and connected services, supporting steady, inclusive and sustainable progress towards common prosperity.  

A café transformed from a desolated mining pit in Yucun Village (COURTESY)