Zhonghuang Village, located in a narrow strip among Majing Mountain, Maliang Mountain, and Guanyin Mountain, with the Qiabi River flowing in front of the village, is mainly inhabited by the Miao people. There are 68 ancient buildings from the late Qing Dynasty, as well as historical and cultural resources such as a fortress tower, an embroidery building, a battlement, and a watchtower. It has rich intangible cultural heritage such as drum dance and Miao embroidery. It was included among the first batch of traditional Chinese villages in 2012.
In recent years, Zhonghuang Village has worked to better utilize its land through a thorough survey of the land resources, historical and cultural elements, and property rights structure of the village. At present, 10 idle old houses in the village have been converted into rural homestay inns, restaurants, exhibition halls for Miao embroidery and other intangible cultural heritage as well as the project department offices of village enterprises.
The village has a population of nearly a thousand, but due to its location in deep mountain gorge, it only has 29.14 hectares of arable land and 36.83 hectares of gardens. But because of its own resource endowment and limitations for development and construction, it has preserved a good natural environment, a complete traditional Miao village style, and a quaint cultural atmosphere. Local villagers have realized that their traditional daily lives have become valuable assets in the modern society, and taken active measures to protect cultural heritage.
In 2024, a local villager took on an order for a large handmade spinning wheel from a cultural and tourism company through his traditional bamboo and wood weaving skills, which is the first step to achieve employment in the village.
Next, the village will explore the practical path of cultural and tourism industries based on core resources such as the fortress tower to support rural development and realize the integrated development of agriculture, culture, and tourism industries.
Zhonghuang Village, located in the middle section of the Qiabi River tourist scenic corridor, is separated from the Dehang Scenic Area by a mountain and adjacent to the Aizhai Highway Wonder, the Aizhai Bridge, and the Lyudong Mountain Scenic Area.
In recent years, the village has improved its infrastructure and public service facilities. Relying on its location, transportation, and culture, it has made efforts to integrate into the all-for-one tourism, promote its image as a Miao village and cultivate the intangible cultural heritage brand.
In 2024, Xiangxi Valley Resident Cultural Industry Development Co., Ltd., one of the village management entities, became the only national cultural industry demonstration base in Xiangxi Prefecture announced by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.
Zhonghuang Village witnessed the rural development of the Chinese path to modernization. It’s made use of policy support for construction and established a tourism company to explore rural tourism.
Next, it will establish an autonomous committee for the rural construction based on villagers to form a community of shared benefits through joint construction of enterprises, village collectives, cooperatives, and farmers. At the same time, it will cultivate a group of specialized, organized, and knowledgeable farmers to enable farmers to share more of the value-added benefits of rural management, thus promoting the endogenous driving force for sustainable development of the village.
Chinese source：cnr
