Lishantou Village, Lishui, Zhejiang: Township makers enter the mountain to activate the new look of the ancient village

China News Service, Lishui, Zhejiang, October 4th. Title: "Village Makers" enter the mountains to show off their skills. The fragrance of the rice sea in Zhejiang's ancient villages welcomes the new look.

Author Zhou Jian

"The short video showed this terraced field, so I invited friends to drive here. It has beautiful mountains and rivers, and visiting the literary and artistic shops is very healing." During the National Day holiday, Lishantou Village, Longquan City, Lishui, Zhejiang Province was flooded with tourists. Fu Zhongqiang from Shaoxing sat on the terrace of "Cloudside Coffee", sipping specially prepared rice field coffee while looking at the mountains and sea of rice.

Lishantou Village, which has two business cards as "the most beautiful terraced fields at the source of Oujiang River" and "traditional Chinese village", is home to thousands of acres of terraced fields and traditional houses. In early autumn, the green and yellow rice fields are stacked on top of each other, like a picture scroll. Over the past few days, young people have been here to drink tea, drink coffee, shop, and enjoy the autumn scenery of the mountains and fields; families with their children have strolled through the fields and experienced the joy of farming...

On October 3, thousands of acres of terraced fields in Lishantou Village, Longquan, Zhejiang Province attracted visitors. (Drone photo) Photo by Zhang Wei

“In the past, only rice was grown in the terraced fields, and most of the villagers went out to work. At one time, 75% of the houses were vacant and uninhabited for a long time.” Qiu Zhangpei, director of the Lishantou Village Committee, said that in order to break the cycle of “lack of people can’t attract operations, lack of operations can’t cultivate businesses, and lack of businesses can’t gain popularity,” the village decided to attract “township makers” to create new businesses at a low cost, attract more business entities, and stimulate rural vitality.

In 2025, the village will not set high rents or demand short-term returns, and will introduce "township makers" to create two new business formats: "Yunbian Coffee" and "Hexia Tingcha". The beautiful scenery paired with trendy drinks quickly became popular, proving that Lishantou has considerable cultural tourism potential.

At the beginning of 2026, Lishantou Village planned the "Rural Creation Ideal Home" investment promotion activity and issued a recruitment order for vacant private houses to the entire network. In just one month, it received more than 50,000 views and more than 2,000 inquiries. After many rounds of screening, 10 maker teams won the lease rights of 10 idle old houses. The village collective is responsible for the exterior facade renovation of these old houses, so that they can be "ready to use and personalized".

On October 1, tourists displayed photos taken in Lishantou Village, Longquan, Zhejiang Province. Photo by Wang Huili

During this year’s National Day holiday, the new business formats created by these teams will be open to welcome customers. Entering the "Local Narrative Laboratory", the manager Wang Huili was busy taking photos of tourists with Polaroids and making photo refrigerator magnets. Many tourists inquire about cultural tourism products such as personal memoirs and family albums. "The landscape and fireworks in Lishantou Village have the power to heal people's hearts. I want to convey the gentleness of the mountains and fields to more people through images and text," said Wang Huili.

Maker Lan Yifan opened the "Yunli Grocery Store" in the village. Cultural and creative products such as nutshell rattles and plush ornaments are very popular among tourists. During the holidays, there are also several research teams experiencing sachet making in the store. Lan Yifan said that they will assign simple manual processes and packaging operations to idle villagers in the village, and they will be paid on a piece-by-piece basis.

On October 1, children experienced sachet making in Lishantou Village, Longquan, Zhejiang. Photo by Ji Ziqing

Today, more and more villagers are taking the initiative to integrate into the development of the village. Some set up stalls to sell agricultural products, and some participate in field operation and maintenance and reception services. "The terraced fields have been transformed into beautiful scenery, the old houses have been transformed into shops, and I have opened my own farmhouse. Life is getting better day by day!" said villager Zhang Tainan. (over)