Yuexiuzhuang Village， Fengtai Town， Ninghe District， Tianjin City： Exploring cultural resources， developing rural tourism and building a happy village

The village was buzzing with laughter as tourists rowed boats， picked in greenhouses， watched shadow puppetry， and visited the Tianzun Pavilion． During this year’s May Day holiday， Yuexiuzhuang Village， Fengtai Town， Ninghe District， Tianjin City， was packed with tourists． The beautiful pastoral scenery attracted more than 40，000 tourists， making the village a sea of joy．

Developing rural tourism empowered by culture

Shadow puppetry has become a”magnet” for tourists

There is a famous small shadow puppetry theater in Yuexiuzhuang Village．

In the theater， several actors were performing earnestly and more than 20 tourists were enjoying the show with relish．

Zhao Mingbo， a village official who holds several posts， said that Yuexiuzhuang Village develops tourism， but there are few tourism resources available． What should we do？ Yuexiuzhuang Village has been famous for its tradition of shadow puppetry． After actively seeking and exploring various tourism elements， the village collective decided to revive the almost lost Yuexiu shadow puppetry． The village collective hired Zhang Guifeng， a national Class－A shadow puppetry performing artist， to provide guidance， and established the Yuexiu Shadow Puppetry Society． Fifteen veteran artists and young backbones were selected to participate in professional skills inheritance training．

The Yuexiu Shadow Puppetry Society has successively produced plays such as”Shadow Puppetry Talk”，”Learning from Lei Feng”，”Talking about Marriage Law with Xiaoqing” about justice， and”Zi Han， a Virtuous Official” about government integrity． These plays have been broadcast on Tianjin TV four times， and have won the Publicity Award of the Bureau of Justice and were selected into the National Judicial Administration Case Database．

The village collective explored rich cultural resources such as historical culture， intangible cultural heritage， and red culture． With the theme of”Fighting COVID－19” and publicizing the Civil Code， it launched more than 50 performances in the form of online intangible cultural heritage art creation plus online communication and performance． In order to give full play to cultural empowerment， the village collective restored the Beacon Tower， a Ming Dynasty site in the village． The Beacon Tower has become an”Internet－famous site” for tourists to Yuexiuzhuang Village． In order to expand tourism， the village specially built the Yuexiu Characteristic Tourist Area and developed 19 tourism projects to further promote the integrated development of agriculture， culture and tourism． The village was selected as one of Tianjin’s 100 model villages for rural revitalization in 2021， and was rated as a national key village of rural tourism in July 2022．

Actively improving the living environment

Encouraging environment improvement with a points system

In recent years， domestic sewage in Yuexiuzhuang Village has been centrally treated； garbage has been cleaned up on the day it is produced； dry toilets have been demolished and water toilets have been built； lots of flowers and plants were planted along the roads． The village collective has also built two gardens and a wooden trestle over a lotus pond in the southeast and north of the village， which added luster to the village environment and made the village more beautiful．

Zhao Mingbo introduced that in order to consolidate the results of rural living environment improvement， the village collective actively implemented a points system to encourage environment improvement． Since January 2020， Yuexiuzhuang Village has launched the civilized practice points management mechanism of”one appointment， one card， one city， and one list”．

The village collective issued a new era civilized practice point card to the general public and conducted statistics and assessment on a household basis． Every month， the assessment results are released on the village’s notice board and WeChat group． The top three and bottom three households will be selected． The top three will be given an five－star household red lantern and a reward of 500 yuan． The bottom three will be included on a”black list”， and will not enjoy some benefits in the village． In the past three years， encouraged by the”red lantern”， villagers have consciously strived to”top the list”．

This year’s May Day， the Yuexiuzhuang Village Collective incorporated villagers’ services into the points system， and villagers can voluntarily provide services in scenic spots． Villagers can earn three points for every hour of service by checking tickets， giving directions， maintaining order， etc．， and can also receive bonus points． The accumulated points can be exchanged for”prizes” at the benevolence supermarket． The tourism points system has enhanced public participation and integrated rural civilization， achieving a”win－win” situation between the collective and the public．

（供稿單位：天津農業農村委 圖文／王錦錕，徐斌 翻譯／沈毅）