Homestays with a cultural touch
A remote village’s tourism program in Southwest China highlights ethnic splendor, helps improve people’s lives
He Cuiying lives on a mountain peak in Yunnan province, at an altitude of 3,000 meters. Every morning, the 91-year-old is greeted by swirling mist, which creates a picturesque scene that is reminiscent of a fairy landscape.
Four years ago, He Cuiying opened a homestay in her yard with the help of her granddaughter, He Qingmei. Ever since, she has shared her stories, the beautiful scenery and the ethnic culture of her village with visitors from across China and other parts of the world.
He Cuiying is a member of the Naxi ethnic group, while her late husband was from the Tibetan ethnic group. In Qibie village, He Cuiying’s home, members of eight ethnic groups, including the Naxi and Lisu, all coexist happily.
The village — in Tacheng town, Weixi Lisu autonomous county, Dechen Tibet autonomous prefecture — is known as a “fusion of five groups”, and local people currently operate 102 homestays.
The villagers said they have turned “houses into homestays and people into performers”. They speak the Naxi language, follow Tibetan customs and warmly welcome tourists from all over the world.
In just eight years, they have developed a united multiethnic homestay village, becoming a key demonstration project for cultural tourism in Yunnan.
Tacheng is approximately a twoand-a-half-hour drive from ShangriLa city. Surrounded by mountains on all sides, it was traditionally considered a remote area. It is rich in natural resources and located in the Three Rivers Confluence Scenic Area, a World Natural Heritage Site.
It is also the core area of the Yunnan Snub-nosed Monkey National Park and an important transportation hub. Those conditions provide unique advantages for the development of Qibie’s tourism industry.
He Cuiying loves singing. Whenever guests visit her home, she sings songs and offers blessings continuously. From Tibetan Buddhist songs to Naxi folk songs, she can sing more than 12 in a sequence. Her favorite song is Chairman Mao is Like the Sun.
She remembers how the remote village was liberated and lifted out of poverty under the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC), so she has a sincere admiration for Beijing as the capital city.
One day, several guests from Beijing came to her home, and she could not help but sing famous revolutionary songs such as The East Is Red and Unity is Strength.
Moved by the senior’s pleasant voice, Sun Yutong and the other guests said they felt her pure devotion to the CPC in her songs. After hearing He Cuiying’s stories, many of them were moved to tears.
He Huizhong, He Cuiying’s husband, was a devout believer in Tibetan Buddhism. After having five children with He Cuiying, he discussed with her his desire to realize his ideal of spreading Tibetan Buddhist culture by rebuilding a ruined temple dedicated to a monk named Bodhidharma on the mountain near their home.
He Cuiying wholeheartedly supported him, and did not object when
he decided to move into the temple and live there permanently.
In the decades that followed, He Huizhong invested all his savings and energy in rebuilding the ruined temple.
Starting by moving one stone up the mountain at a time, he eventually completed the reconstruction, providing a pilgrimage site for Tibetan Buddhists within a radius of several hundred miles.
He Qingmei said, “Like other devout Tibetan Buddhists, my grandmother used to make a pilgrimage around the mountain every year before she turned 80. After chanting
a blessing, she would perform a long ritual. She would also climb over the mountain between our home and the temple every year to deliver handmade clothes and food to my grandfather. I want to make a video record of all the songs my grandmother sings as they are a precious cultural heritage. Once my grandmother is gone, there may not be anyone left to sing those songs.”
He Cuiying’s homestay is named “Grandma’s House” because it was built by He Qingmei and her cousins for their grandmother.
They hope to share the beautiful scenery and stories of their grandmother’s home with more people and provide colorful memories for the senior through the visits of guests from around the world.
Construction of He Qingmei’s own homestay started in 2015, and it was one of the first such units completed in Qibie. She said she designed and built the homestay herself.
The house retains the traditional Naxi architecture of stone and solid wood, along with wooden doors that have a history of more than 100 years.
Combined with comfortable bedding and bathrooms, it achieves a fusion of traditional ethnic culture and modern elements.
“In this way, guests can have a different experience and still live comfortably,” He Qingmei said.
Pointing to a jar in her homestay, she said, “When we were young, we didn’t have vegetables in the winter, so the elders would use jars like this to pickle vegetables. Now that life is more convenient and we can buy vegetables anytime, anywhere, we have turned these old objects into vases and placed them in the homestay. There are many such items here.”
June to August is the peak tourist season in Tacheng every year. Family groups and visitors from all over the world come one after another, often overwhelming the homestays in the town.
During peak season, the price of a homestay room is generally around 1,000 yuan ($140), but it is lower in the off-season. He Qingmei said that over the course of the year, the homestay brings in about 200,000 yuan in income, which is exceptionally high for local farmers.
He Qingmei is a Communist Party member, and she currently serves as an organizational secretary in Tacheng.
She shuttles between villages in her daily work to talk to people. She said that the Party branch activities are rich and diverse, and people of all ethnic groups are united. There is a Party emblem on every piece of clothing she wears, irrespective of whether it is Tibetan or Naxi attire.
Chen Zhaojiang, deputy secretary of the Tacheng Party Committee, said, “The development of cultural tourism has made a significant contribution to poverty alleviation in the town. Before the national poverty alleviation campaign, the per capita annual income of Qibie village was about 4,000 yuan.
“We began to develop homestays in about 2015. In 2019, Tacheng achieved comprehensive poverty alleviation, and now the villagers’ per capita annual income is more than 10,000 yuan.
“What’s even more special is that many people who left the village to become migrant workers have been returning. Many young people from the mountains went to the cities to work. Now, we see that the tourism industry in our hometown is developing well, so those talented individuals who left the village in the early days have now returned and helped develop various industries.”
He added that in addition to building homestays, some of the residents have opened restaurants, established livestock farms and developed sales of agricultural produce, which have greatly boosted Tacheng’s economic development.
In recent years, Tacheng has been awarded the title of “Advanced Collective in Yunnan Province’s Poverty Alleviation Campaign”, designated as “A Town with Ethnic Cultural Characteristics” and as an “Exemplary Town for National Ethnic Unity” in Yunnan.
It has also been selected as one of the 100 demonstration towns for rural vitalization in the province.
Meanwhile, Qibie has been designated as a key national village for rural tourism.