China News Service, Ordos, September 29. Title: "Prairie Village Row" has become a new business card for the integration of culture and sports in rural China.
China News Service reporter Li Aiping
After the Mid-Autumn Festival, farmers and herdsmen in Angsu Town, Etuokeqian Banner, Ordos City, Inner Mongolia returned to the volleyball court. The people, who had just finished harvesting and grazing, put on their team uniforms and immediately began to throw the ball, pass the ball, and jump and smash. The volleyball flew back and forth over the vast grassland.
The players on the field cooperated tacitly, and the folks on the sidelines cheered and cheered, and bursts of laughter filled the grassland. Not far from the competition ground, herdsman Wulan and his wife set up a stall early, and the fragrant big bowls of mutton added to the lively competition atmosphere.
On September 28, herdsmen in Aungsu Town held an outdoor volleyball match. Photographed by Chaogbadari
"We herdsmen followed us to play volleyball, and as it became more popular, our lives became more prosperous." Ulan, who has lived in the grasslands for most of his life, said with emotion. As a local herdsman in Aung Su Town, he has witnessed the transformation of grassland volleyball from a niche hobby to a national craze. This summer and autumn, a number of large-scale volleyball events were held in the local area. The crowds gathered at the stadium boosted surrounding consumption. He earned a considerable daily income by selling large bowls of mutton, and he truly tasted the benefits of getting rich from mass sports.
Wang Wei, secretary of the Party Committee of Aung Su Town, said that grassland volleyball originated from the educated youth years more than half a century ago. In 1968, educated youths from Nanjing who went to Otok Qianqi to join the team brought volleyball to the grassland. After decades of inheritance, this sport has already jumped out of the category of pure sports competition and has been deeply integrated into the production and life of farmers and herdsmen, becoming a unique local cultural symbol.
In July 2024, the Ordos "Prairie Village Volleyball" and the Farmers and Herdsmen Volleyball Invitational Tournament in nine provinces and districts along the Yellow River were held locally. Lang Ping, the former head coach of the Chinese women's volleyball team, encouraged the development of the "Prairie Village Volleyball" through a short video, bringing this folk sport into the public eye. Since then, former Chinese women's volleyball head coach Chen Zhonghe, along with Zhang Ping, Zhang Na and other women's volleyball champion players, came to the field to help out. Famous players such as Zhao Ruirui also paid on-site visits and continued to pay attention, injecting full vitality into grassland local sports.
The popularity of sports continues to go out of the circle, effectively activating the momentum of rural development. Relying on the "Prairie Village Pai" IP, the local area continues to launch a series of cultural and tourism activities "Follow the village platoon to travel, enjoy delicious food, and appreciate intangible cultural heritage", using sports to attract traffic and cultural tourism to increase income, turning the formerly remote Otuoke Qianqi into a popular check-in destination.
Official data shows that since 2024, Etuoke Qianqi has received a total of 826,500 tourists, with a comprehensive tourism revenue of 1.409 billion yuan; throughout 2025, Etuoke Qianqi has received a total of 1.65 million tourists, with a comprehensive tourism revenue of 2.9 billion yuan.
What deserves more attention is that grassland volleyball, which is rooted in the local area, is gradually becoming a new window for Otok grassland to open up to the outside world and promote cultural exchanges. Jiri Mutu, president of the "Prairie Village Volleyball" Association in Otok Qian Banner, introduced that in 2025, African volleyball player Rodriguez came here to compete and exchange skills with local herdsmen players; in February 2026, more than 60 Taiwanese compatriots visited in a group to immerse themselves in the local charm of grassland volleyball, building a heart-warming bridge for cross-strait people-to-people exchanges.
"Lawn volleyball is a popular leisure sport in the world and has a natural communication attribute." Chinese female ranking player Zhu Yunying said in an interview with a reporter from China News Service that the "Prairie Village Volleyball" rooted in the countryside of northern Xinjiang not only has the fireworks of Chinese rural areas, but also has unique potential for international development.
Liu Gang, the person in charge of the grassland village volleyball cultural and creative hall in Otok Qianqi, pointed out that after more than half a century of development, "prairie village volleyball" has become more than just a sport, from a sports fire sown by educated youth to a nationwide movement popular in the grasslands; from a rural event for herdsmen to entertain themselves, to a cultural platform that connects China and foreign countries and integrates both sides of the Taiwan Strait. It carries the beautiful life changes of the grassland people and brings the local vitality hidden in the grasslands of northern Xinjiang to the wider world. (over)
