Igniting Villagers' Passion for Entrepreneurship

In this sharing session, Magdalena and her husband also recounted their perception of visiting a Western Chinese village.

Ninghai County of Zhejiang Province provides pairing assistance to Qinglong County of Guizhou Province. Thirteen artists involved in the rural revitalization of Gejia Village therefore traveled to Dingwang Village, Qinglong County, for the transformation of this Guizhou village. Its villagers were shown videos about Gejia Village's art-based rural revitalization and sparked with great enthusiasm. Several scenic spots were built there, like "Future Academy", "Gejia Yard" and "Dream Weaving Workshop". Dingwang Village has nowadays become a magnet for tourists.

Upon their arrival at Dingwang Village on November 12th, Magdalena and her husband were deeply impressed by how this art-based revitalization has transformed the remote Guizhou village and how it has sparked the villagers' entrepreneurial passion.

Mr. Luo Yunquan, a local fellow in Dingwang Village, has renovated his house and turned it into a B&B called "Buyi Nongqing" (i.e. Deep Affection of Bouyei Nationality). "I opened the B&B not only to earn money for myself, but also to help other villagers to get rich." As Mr. Luo said, he had mobilized several villagers good at cooking to embark on agritainment in the village and others able to dye to set up a dye house for the creation of a tourism industry chain.

It is the very trip to Dingwang Village that makes this Polish couple realize the significance of industrial development in changing the destiny of villages, especially for those underdeveloped ones in Western China. On their visit to Dingwang Village, they found in many families, husbands were working in the urban areas while wives were left behind to take care of their children.

"If people are leaving villages for work in a city, villages would no longer mean a draw to them."  In the belief of Magdalena, villages are the wealth of human beings, and rural revitalization is of great significance to protecting the sustainable development of villages. Otherwise, a village will become deserted as a growing number of villagers are moving to the city with their whole family.