2017-02-20 

Characteristic village

By Zhang Shangyao/text  Zhang Chuanmin  WalkerMedia/graph

On February 16, in spite of the tiny cold, Jixia Village, a Chinese historical and cultural village and traditional Chinese village, still drew a great number of tourists. "Cultural creativity + tourism" has made this ancient village stand out from rural tourism. According to information, the County Committee of the Communist Party of China and the county government put forward the striving goal of creating a national-level cultural creative industry demonstration base at the county's economic work conference hosted on the same day. 

Dragon Dance Show on Water

The core for Pingnan to create a national-level cultural creative industry demonstration base lies in its great number of ancient villages and abundant cultural heritage. Over 120 traditional villages among 258 villages in Pingnan have reserved abundant cultural heritage or traditional architectures. Among others, Shuangxi Town, Jitou Village and Jixia Village represent China's famous historical and cultural towns. 15 villages there including Shuangxi Community, Jitou, Jixia and Xianglong Villages have been enrolled in the Traditional Chinese Villages Catalog. The craftsmanship of wooden-arched corridor bridge has been included in the "List of Intangible Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding upon the Proposal of China" by the UNESCO. 5 wooden-arched corridor bridges have been enrolled in the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List. It also has the state-level intangible cultural heritage of craftsmanship of wooden-arched corridor bridge, Pingjiang Opera, Siping Opera and Moving Iron Branch of Shuangxi. China's culture relic protection sites including Wanan Bridge, Qiancheng Bridge, Baixiang Bridge and Jixia Building Complex also reside there. For its great efforts for years in tapping, protecting and creating brands of cultural projects, Pingnan has been appraised as the "Hometown of Chinese Folk Art (Drama)", "Hometown of Chinese Wooden-arched Corridor Bridge Culture", "Hometown of Chinese Folk Martial Arts Culture" and also the reputation of "Hometown of Chinese Red Rice Wine - Yellow Rice Wine Culture". Pingnan is well-earned for all these reputations. 

Jitou Farming Culture Museum

In recent years, Pingnan has intensified its efforts in tapping, protecting and inheriting cultural heritage. As early as in 2002, Pingnan established its Local Opera Research Office to be specialized in tapping and protection of cultural heritage. This office was later changed into Pingnan County Cultural Heritage Protection and Research Office. In 2013, the County Committee of the Communist Party of China and county government listed the protection and development of traditional villages as one of the seven priorities of the whole county for full promotion. Each member of the standing committee of the County Committee of the Communist Party of China was assigned with one traditional village for protection and development. The secretary of the County Committee of the Communist Party of China and the county governor was assigned with Jitou and Jixia respectively with the largest work difficulties. Over RMB 20 million of development funds was raised to repair cultural relics and historic sites and improve infrastructure. In 2016, Wu Yunming, secretary of the County Committee of the Communist Party of China and Wang Xudong, county governor, was assigned with Jixia and Xianglong Villages separately for poverty relief. As a result, tens of millions of development funds were invested, making the protection and construction of traditional villages in full swing and attracting an increasing number of tourists. Last year, Pingnan timely introduced the Implementation Opinions on Promoting the Development of Cultural Creative Industry in Pingnan, set up the Cultural Creative Office and invested RMB 10 million of construction funds. All these moves aimed to foster a batch of influential cultural creative activity brands and product brands in China and develop Pingnan into a characteristic demonstration base of cultural creative industry in Fujian Province. 

Folk Art Performance

This year, Pingnan has taken the construction of a national-level cultural creative industry demonstration base as one of the county's priorities and made great efforts to speed up the construction progress. Sa far, the county has set out to set up the Culture Creative Industry Program Headquarters headed by the secretary of the County Committee of the Communist Party of China and the county governor and RMB 15 million will be funded to promote the construction of cultural creative bases in Shuangxi, Jixia, Xiadi, Xianglong, Qianyang and other villages. Ancient village repair and cultural creative platform construction have also been initiated in Qianyang, Tangkou and other villages. The county has made continuous efforts to propel training of seed projects, facilitated the launch of cultural creative work in a batch of ancient villages including Zhengshan, Baiyu and Longtan to expand new space of rural entrepreneurship. All these moves will effectively promote the protection and development of traditional villages, further poverty alleviation by culture and create a new engine for rural industrial transformation and overall tourism.

Ancient Architecture Remains

Antai Art City

Corridor Bridge Museum

Folk Art Performance

Farming Cultural Relics Exhibition

Festival in Mountain Village

Festival Lanterns in Rural Area

Cultural Creative Painting Base

Farmers' Studio

Cultural Creative Works Exhibition

Tourists Appreciating Art Works

(Photo & Article: Pingnan Tourism)