Farmers becoming artists amid rural Shandong's development

Shandong province is synchronizing poverty alleviation with rural revitalization by introducing high-end talent and developing projects to enrich residents while maintaining a friendly ecological system.

A typical example is Shengshuiyu town in Jining's Sishui county, which is known as the home of Confucius.

After driving along a mountain road nestled in greenery, visitors arrived at the town's Dongzhongdu village, where they came upon some youth exercising, drawing landscapes, doing woodwork and working with clay.

"This is really a fantastic place for my students to learn from nature. They learn fast when they get themselves involved," said Hu Jicheng, who led a group of students from Chengzi primary school for field studies.

Last year, by contrast, the village was seldom visited by outsiders. Many houses were dilapidated, and roads were narrow and muddy. Things began changing last year when Shengshuiyu was designated as a demonstration area for the province's rural revitalization campaign.

Since then, local governments have invested in roads, water supplies and a drainage system, as well as computer network systems in the demonstration area that are home to 3,576 families in 18 villages.

After completing the infrastructure, local governments initiated a campaign to woo talent to develop projects in the communities. To date, local governments have signed 30 projects with 37 partners.

"We have changed 48 old, shabby houses that were not being used into places where students and tourists can read, have coffee and tea, work with clay and do woodwork," said Tian Bin, 46, one of the partners.

"The local government has built the platform for us. What we need to do is to develop a rural environment in which people and nature can coexist in harmonious ways."

"Our village is changing every day. The environment is getting better and better, and so are our lives," said Li Baoyu, the Party branch secretary of Dongzhongdu, adding that the projects developed by the partners are bringing more income to the village.