Page 14 - YunnanTourismCultureTimes (118)

13 CITY LIFE | 城事
Rural revitalization offers valuable insights
乡野寻踪 云南印象“+1”
Sunlight bathed Tuguachong Village in Malong District,
Qujing. Beneath the ancient trees, light filtered through the
leaves in dappled patterns. Do Thi Tuan Linh, Director of
the Audiovisual Division, Audiovisual and Internet Informa-
tion Bureau, Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Vi-
etnam, strolled through the lanes. Pausing by an old house,
she pointed to the blue-grey tiles adorned with decorative
patterns and asked, “Are those lotus flowers?” Throughout
the village, from the stone-built homes and a coffee shop
converted from a tobacco-curing barn to a museum filled
with rustic artifacts, she stopped often, raising her camera
again and again to capture the scenes. “The architecture
here shares quite a few similarities with villages in central
Vietnam,” she noted. “The lotus is our national flower, and
we also love to decorate our houses with it.” She added that
her visit was also a learning journey, to draw from Yunnan’s
mature rural tourism practices and explore how ethnic re-
gions can successfully integrate culture and travel.
This was Souvanh Khoundala, Deputy Director General
of Lao National Radio’s first visit to China. Previously,
his understanding of this neighboring country came only
from newspapers and television. Now, seeing it with his
own eyes, he found China far more prosperous and beau-
tiful than he had ever imagined. Filled with curiosity in
Tuguachong Village, he asked one question after another:
“Does the village really have a library?” “Who takes care of
the vegetable garden?” “What are the villagers’ main sourc-
es of income?” He expressed his belief that this systematic
and sustainable approach to rural revitalization offers valua-
ble insights for Laos’ own rural development efforts.
Upon entering Liaohu Village in Qujing, the lively at-
mosphere of a pottery workshop drew in Nguyen Ngoc Anh,
a digital journalist from VTC News (Voice of Vietnam). Ea-
ger to try his hand, he painted a piece of pottery and bought
several plain bisque jars. “Yunnan’s sunshine and climate are
perfect for growing flowers,” he remarked. “These handmade
pots will be ideal for succulents or for brewing local tea.”
Nearby, Nguyen Thi Ngoc Mai, an official from the Audiovis-
ual and Internet Information Bureau of Vietnam’s Ministry of
Culture, Sports and Tourism, was already scrolling through a
camera roll filled with photos of Qujing’s Zhanyi handmade
rice cakes. Captivated by their intricate patterns and styles, she
began planning to place a custom order from Yunnan in time
for the Lunar New Year. From pastoral landscapes to distinc-
tive local crafts, Yunnan’s model of deeply integrating native
resources with tourism offered the Vietnamese delegation a
valuable blueprint, one they were keen to take home.
During the event, the Lancang-Mekong Audiovisual
Week Organizing Committee, together with the Yunnan In-
ternational Communication Center for South and Southeast
Asia and Kunming’s Park 1903, co-hosted the “Showcasing
the Silk Road & Fostering Neighborly Connections” cultur-
al fair. The market brought together food, handicrafts, intan-
gible cultural heritage items, and other products from across
the Lancang-Mekong region. Over three days, it drew a
total of 174,000 visitors. Notable among the exhibitors
was the Myanmar Goddess Garden Traditional Handicraft
Workshop, which made its debut to considerable interest.
Khin Swe Swe Win (transliteration), the workshop head,
presented meticulously crafted, entirely handmade scarves,
sharing with the Chinese audience the natural beauty and ar-
tisan warmth of Myanmar. As she gently unfolded a soft lilac
scarf, she explained, “All our scarves are handwoven using
pure natural cotton and silk. Even the dyes are extracted from
plants. For example, this gentle lilac comes from onions.”
Khin Swe Swe Win’s creations are cherished for their
unique artistry. Using traditional looms, each piece is woven
thread by thread, with every leaf and petal gently imprinted
by hand onto plain scarves.