Study tour boom fuels China's countryside revival

BEIJING -- "Traveling thousands of miles is better than reading thousands of books" is a proverb many Chinese parents have faith in, and its sentiment is fueling the rise of study tours, particularly during the ongoing summer vacation in China.

Integrating educational content with holiday vibes, these tours typically involve visits to prestigious universities, museums and cultural heritage sites.

And now a shift is underway -- parents, schools and travel agencies are turning away from bustling cities and opting for the tranquil countryside when making holiday arrangements for children and teens, aiming to help them broaden their horizons and get close to nature.

In Northeast China, where cornfields stretch far and wide, Ma Zhihai demonstrated how to use stone axes and iron sickles, both traditional farming tools that are unfamiliar to many urbanites, to an attentive study tour group.

The 62-year-old farmer from Changchun, Jilin province, works as a part-time guide at a corn museum in his village. With a collection of nearly 10,000 items, the museum often caters to groups of local students.

"The oldest exhibits date back to dynasties 1,000 years ago," Ma said, viewing the collections as a living textbook preserving China's farming culture.

Ma's village is among China's many rural areas that are tapping into the potential of educational tours and opening a new gateway to rural revitalization. Data shows that this booming market neared a scale of 147 billion yuan ($20.6 billion) in 2023 and is projected to hit 242 billion yuan by 2026.

Featuring wild landscapes, rich histories and folk cultures, China's rural areas have natural advantages for study field trips.

"Look, I caught a crab!" a girl exclaimed in a paddy field that is also used for crab breeding. Mud spots on her face marked her triumph and also her study results.

The field in Zhoujiazhuang, a village in North China's Hebei province, allows rice and crabs to coexist, while also serving as a dedicated base for educational tours. Students on the tour were seen planting rice seedlings and taking notes on the ideal water temperature for crab cultivation.

"It's so fun. I'm even thinking about raising a crab myself now," one boy said.

Attracted by such niche experiences, many of the tourists visiting Zhoujiazhuang are now willing to remain there longer, with overnight stays increasing notably. Ranging from brief snapshot visits to deeper immersion in a slow-paced way of life, rural tourism is gaining new vitality.

This positive trend is also a result of the progress China's rural areas have made in their development of infrastructure and living environments. Today, over 90 percent of administrative villages across the country are covered by the 5G network, and more than 300,000 village-level logistics facilities have been put into use.

Thanks to a government push to stimulate consumption and the country's efforts to promote comprehensive rural revitalization, a multitude of study tour campsites have sprouted across rural China. By giving full play to local tourism resources, they are emerging as a new form and key driver of rural revitalization.

In Southwest China's Yunnan province, a popular tourist destination, travelers are attracted by the opportunity to learn about ceramics, bamboo weaving and ethnic-minority embroidery handicrafts. Meanwhile, in Yudong village in East China's Zhejiang province, which is known for its folk arts, the likes of travelers, artists and farmers sit down together to paint picturesque scenery.

Rural residents are deeply involved in this wave -- and their incomes have increased markedly via sales of specialty foods and the running of guesthouses.

In a village of Zhongyi township, Southwest China's Chongqing municipality, workshops on local dances, tea and desserts have created more than 200 jobs and spawned over 20 derivative products, like noodles and honey beverages, achieving a remarkable 43-percent repurchase rate on multiple e-commerce platforms.

Zhongyi was once among the poorest towns in Chongqing -- its local average annual income was less than 10,000 yuan in 2019.

Capitalizing on the "tourism-plus-educational-tour" model, Zhongyi recorded 189,000 tourist trips in 2024, generating 9.88 million yuan in revenue -- with the average income of locals increasing by 32 percent compared with 2020.

"We have designed 10 tours involving different routes, transforming Zhongyi into a live-scenario classroom that teaches about bees while representing traditional farming and folk customs," said Liu Chengyong, an educational tour guide.

Liu is a native of Zhongyi. In 2020, he returned to his hometown and joined a collective that organizes study tours. He led other young entrepreneurs to tap into the market and design compelling educational programs. Now, the company can handle 1,300 visits each day.

The transformation of Zhongyi has convinced more young people like Liu to return home and pitch in. Over the past three years, the town has attracted over 100 young entrepreneurs, giving rise to new jobs like "countryside CEO" and study tour guide.

Young returnees in rural areas also help address the lack of guides and breathe new life into rural revitalization with fresh eyes and business philosophies.

Ni Shuna, who was born in the 1990s, operates an ecological agricultural company based in a town under the administration of Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang. Seeing the potential of educational tours, Ni's team designed activities such as fruit picking, orchard tours and starry-night camping, making her company a multi-functional leisure business that integrates catering, entertainment and education.

"Kids come here to increase their knowledge and broaden their horizons. It's worthwhile to see their eyes gleam with curiosity and gratification," Ni said.