Fujian’s rural revitalisation

ON a mountain plateau over 800m above sea level in Zhouning county, Ningde, Fujian province, vividly coloured succulents bathe in the cool mountain air. For Liu Lin, their fleshy leaves are more than mere flora – they are an antidote to urban anxiety.

Liu’s pivot from a trader of building materials to the “curator” of a greenhouse of succulent garden offers a compelling vignette of Fujian’s sweeping rural revitalisation.

Therapeutic economy

“I ran a building materials store for over two decades,” recalls Liu, head of Zhouning-based Jingyu Horticulture.

Her transformation began with a serendipitous discovery.

“My first succulent was simply a way to decompress. It was beautiful and therapeutic. Eventually, my balcony held over 2,000 pots.”

The career shift has delivered handsome returns. Liu notes cheerfully that succulent cultivation has helped settle debts from her previous business.

“Every leaf is money,” she says with a smile.

Liu does not stop her step at perceiving succulents as agricultural produce; instead, she has unearthed their underlying “emotional value”.

Leveraging Zhouning’s distinctive alpine cool climate, the succulents here boast plump leaves, vivid hues and rich varieties, enjoying an “off-season” edge unmatched by lowland counterparts.

She has gone further by introducing the concept of “floral artists”, elevating succulent cultivation to the realm of artistic creation.

“My staff members are all trained floral artists,” Liu explains.

Drawing on floral aesthetics, they arrange succulents according to their growth habits.

“We can turn succulents into art, adding value to the product.”

At her greenhouse, visitors can not only purchase finished pieces but also personally experience potting, root trimming and soil filling.

This “experiential consumption” endows an ordinary plant with premium added value.

At the same time, Liu has introduced a “common prosperity” model, distributing seedlings to neighbouring villagers for them to nurture at home.

“The villagers can buy our seedlings, take them home and use whatever pots they like... After six months to a year, once they meet our quality standards, we buy them back,” Liu says.

This flexible “courtyard economy” not only taps underutilised labour but also transforms agriculture into a revenue-generating industry right in villagers’ homes.

Blue granary

If succulent cultivation represents the “small yet exquisite” facet of refined agriculture, the large yellow croaker industry along Ningde’s coastline demonstrates how traditional fisheries can achieve a “large yet robust” leap by injecting new quality productive forces.

As the “hometown of large yellow croaker in China”, Ningde’s output reached 222,400 tonnes by end-2025, accounting for over 80% of the national total, with the entire industrial chain valued at more than 20 billion yuan (US$2.98bil).

Yet the industry once faced bottlenecks of germplasm degradation and inconsistent quality. Over the years, Ningde has used technology and standards to shatter these constraints.

An official from the Ningde Large Yellow Croaker Industry Association explains that a local enterprise, in collaboration with Jimei University, has bred new disease-resistant varieties such as Minyou No 2 and Ningkang No 1.

On the farming side, traditional foam rafts have been replaced by deep-water, wind-resistant cages.

There is even a “runway for fish” model that uses sonar technology to drive school movement, giving farmed fish a texture close to that of wild catch.

“We joined forces with top research institutions in Fujian and Zhejiang, along with leading enterprises, to formulate the nation’s first technical specification for high-quality large yellow croaker grading,” says You Chengyin, secretary-general of the Ningde City Large Yellow Croaker Industry Association.

“This standard classifies the fish into five grades, from A to 5A.”

Through traceability, certification and grade codes, consumers can pinpoint the origin and quality of the fish on their plate.

This standardisation has enabled Ningde large yellow croaker to penetrate high-end catering and international markets, achieving a leap from selling by the kilo to selling by quality.

Reverse growth of ancient villages

In Fujian, a thriving cultural tourism industry rests on the empowerment of culture and ecology.

At the Taiwan-themed Town in Pingtan, Fuzhou, a new business model – deep integration of culture, commerce and tourism – is awakening dormant rural resources.

Taiwan-themed Town in Pingtan, Fuzhou, once a single-function commercial park, has transformed into a cultural tourism complex integrating shopping, cuisine and performance.

Lin Yan, general manager of the Pingtan Comprehensive Experimental Zone Culture and Tourism Group, explained that by introducing immersive performances, Taiwan specialty snacks and a nighttime economy, average visitor visit time has extended from under one hour to over three.

In the depth of the mountains of Pingnan county, Ningde, Longtan village has adopted a “culture and creativity plus ancient village” model, attracting “new villagers” like Nyikar Tso from Aba Tibetan-Qiang autonomous prefecture, Sichuan province.

Drawn to the timber-framed traditional dwellings and creative atmosphere, she and her husband have transformed idle ancient homes into a hybrid space combining guesthouses, a cafe and a pottery studio.

She plans to bring her elderly family members and children to stay.

New villagers like her already number more than 100 in Longtan village.

They have brought coffee shops, bookstores and oil painting studios among others, breathing new life into the ancient settlement.

Their arrival represents not merely capital investment, but a fusion of new ideas and lifestyles, fundamentally reshaping the rural social ecosystem.

Chinese-style modernisation

From Liu’s succulent greenhouse to large yellow croaker in Ningde and Pingtan’s Taiwan-themed Town, these cases reveal a shared trend: rural revitalisation is no longer simply about paving roads and erecting houses, but about injecting new quality productive forces to restructure industries.

People are at the core of the process. Whether they’re young entrepreneurs returning home, crossover “new farmers,” or tourists seeking spiritual sanctuary, they collectively form the endogenous momentum driving rural development.

Xu Chendan, head of Haidao township, Xiapu county, Ningde, says local authorities are committed to transforming a traditional fishing township into a modern service industry hub.

Through sport fishing events and island tourism, fishermen are becoming tour guides and service providers.

This shift from living off the sea, to cultivating and protecting it, to enjoying and appreciating it, is a vivid practice of rural revitalisation at the grassroots governance level.

In this landscape where mountains meet the sea, we witness not only income growth and evolving consumption patterns, but a transformation of lifestyles.

It proves that amid modernisation, rural areas can still offer a reassuring place to call home – perhaps the most compelling illustration of Chinese-style modernisation in the realm of rural revitalisation. — China Daily/ANN