It was a sunny day in March when I arrived at Azheke, a remote rice-terrace village in Yunnan province’s Yuanyang county. A buzz of money was humming around the mushroom-shaped houses. Earlier that morning, the village held the latest of its dividend payment ceremonies, and the sound of currency-counting machines flutters through the chatter as the last few villagers line up to receive their red packets.

Once a subsistence-level farming village, Azheke has ridden the 21st-century wave of eco-tourism to become a popular destination for vacationers looking for an off-the-beaten-path locale. But unlike so many tourism hot spots where the hunger for money flattens out the local culture and leaves residents behind, the village’s path to prosperity has been built through a unique cooperative scheme, known as the Azheke plan, designed to enrich the villagers and preserve its heritage.

Where the bamboo grows

Reaching Azheke is no simple journey. Most tourists would have to make a four-hour trip from the provincial capital of Kunming, first reaching Nansha, a small town at the mountain base outside the Yuanyang Rice Terrace tourism area, before making a one-hour bus trip up the mountainside to the resort area, and to Azheke village. But once there, visitors can relish the misty hills of Yuanyang’s Hani Rice Terraces, which have been cultivated for over 1300 years and were designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2013.

Azheke sits atop the terraces, populated by 65 households that now include nearly 400 villagers from the Hani ethnic minority group. Its name in the Hani language translates to “a place where bamboo grows in abundance.” Established in 1855, the village is enveloped by its own spiritual aura. Wooden signs hang from trees alongside stone paths leading to the village, warning visitors that spirits live within its forest, and to not trespass. Further up, a row of stone fountains labeled “The Sacred Mountain Water” peacefully spout into stone basins below before flowing into Azheke’s maze of ditches, like blood streaming through veins.

The village itself is made up of yellow, thatched-roof “mushroom houses,” and village elders smoking water pipes nod to me as I wander the narrow paths between them. One lady standing nearby ties and lifts a massive sink unit across her shoulders, while an older woman delicately weaves together royal navy-dyed fabrics in front of her abode. On the single-ring road that loops around the county’s terraces, Hani farmers whip their slowly trotting water buffalos at a pace no faster than a century before.

The “Azheke Plan”

Ten years ago, Azheke was just another remote village with inefficient equipment, outdated farming practices, and deteriorating structures. Before the Azheke Plan began, most of the low-educated villagers lived on minimal means, surviving on an annual per capita income of just 2,800 yuan. Yet, Azheke’s Hani-style “mushroom homes” were among the most well-preserved in all of Yuanyang.

In 2018, as part of the country’s poverty alleviation efforts, the Yuanyang county government selected and approved the “Azheke Plan.” Proposed by Sun Yat-Sen University professor Bao Jigang and his team, the Azheke project spearheaded the village’s rural revitalization efforts while focusing on heritage protection, maintenance of the Hani “mushroom homes,” and preservation of its natural surroundings. At the same time, university researchers and students would engage in eco-friendly tourism development strategies with the villagers aimed at transforming Azheke into a rural tourism destination.

Yang Bing, a post-doctoral fellow from Sun Yat-Sen University’s School of Tourism, was among the first cohorts of students to visit Azheke in January 2018. That June, he became the village’s first resident graduate student and was assigned to begin establishing the foundational framework of the Azheke Plan. As the Azheke Project was still in its infancy, Yang committed to its long-term success, spending 14 months in Azheke during his first stay. “We have a set amount of foundational work to complete. This included training local villagers, managing the tourism company, developing new tourism products, and receiving guests such as government officials and social organizations. Additionally, we play a role in managing the village’s public affairs and establishing regulations for community governance,” he tells TWOC.

The Azheke Plan introduced four key rules for villagers: they cannot rent, sell, or destroy their traditional Hani homes; the enterprise cannot accept outside investment; all tourism-related matters must be managed by the enterprise, barring unauthorized business activities; and preserving the village’s cultural heritage remains the top priority.

But the reward is as plentiful as the rules. Under the ”Azheke Plan,” Hani villagers formed a collective tourism partnership with Sun Yat-Sen University, becoming co-owners of a new commercial enterprise, Yuanyang Moshang Rural Tourism Development Ltd. Around 70 percent of the company’s profits are allocated to the villagers, with the remaining 30 percent going to the co-owned enterprise. To distribute the 70 percent of revenue, the Azheke Project adopted a “4-3-2-1” dividend payment model. In this system, 40 percent goes to villagers who protect and maintain traditional Hani houses, 30 percent supports those maintaining the rice terraces, 20 percent to villagers currently residing in Azheke, and 10 percent to those who retain their hukou, or household registry, in the village.

“Beyond economic improvements, the project has also enhanced rural governance by introducing structured property rights systems. Local residents are taking a more active role in managing their community, which has led to many tangible improvements,” says Yang.

Professor Bao, who proposed the Azheke Plan, believes that securing the villagers’ rights to these tourism profits is the key to sustainable development. “When the rice planted by villagers is taken away, it is universally and naturally regarded as theft. Why, then, isn’t the same true when their intangible assets are taken?” asked Bao during a speech at the World Tourism Alliance in 2023. “Only by implementing these rights can we ensure that the development of rural tourism is not just policy-driven alleviation or a showcase of capital operation.”

Sun Yat-Sen University now continues to utilize Azheke as a research base for their students and researchers, who usually stay for at least half a year. At the same time, they work with villagers to improve the village’s living standards and develop its overall tourism appeal. Villagers have used their newly learned business acumen to open multiple homestays, cafes, and restaurants. The village now has its own library and hosts a variety of events, ranging from its own Long Street Feast to celebrations of traditional Chinese holidays.

Harvesting the rewards

The dividend payments have steadily increased over the years as the village has gained popularity. In March 2019, the co-owned tourism company distributed its first dividends, totaling 89,000 yuan, with villagers receiving between 700 and 1,600 yuan on average. Since then, villagers have received two to three dividend payments annually. According to the official Azheke WeChat account, by 2025, the company’s cumulative revenue had surpassed 5 million yuan, with total dividend payouts reaching 2.87 million yuan, resulting in an average dividend of approximately 44,162 yuan per household.

In November 2024, another milestone was reached, as Azheke was awarded a “World Tourism Village” designation by the United Nations World Tourism Organization, one of only fifteen villages in China ever to receive such an honor. The award is given to villages that are trailblazers in preserving cultural heritage, protecting local resources, and maintaining local traditions.

When I visited on March 21 this year, the eleventh and most recent round of dividend payments totaled 448,000 yuan, with most households receiving an average of 6,800 yuan. In the village square that day, students from prestigious universities like Fudan and Sun Yat-Sen scribbled in their notebooks, while local government personnel rushed around to attend to guests. Villagers, carrying their new hongbao (red packets), roamed the area taking photos—a scene unimaginable just a decade earlier. Gao Sao, a local Azheke villager who works within Azheke’s ticket sales department, beamed with excitement as she flaunted her hefty 8,000 yuan hongbao, which was one of the highest dividend payouts. “The more tourists, the more that is handed out to villagers,” said Gao, content with the progress and changes the Azheke plan has brought. “We have to manage and maintain our homes, and the company can help with these costs.”

Nearby, one of the century-old mushroom homes had been converted into a café, with a large straw and coffee mug displayed on its second-floor balcony. Two young Hani boys greeted me as I looked over the menu. “We only have pour-over coffee today. We’ve sold out of everything else,” they said, their eyes wide and alert. “Business must be good. Let me try some Azheke pour-over coffee then!” I replied, scanning the café’s interior, which featured farming tools and traditional Hani-style seating—round woven-bamboo tables and small fire pits surrounded by stone blocks. Not only have older Azheke villagers shifted to running businesses, but the Hani children here are developing their own entrepreneurial mindset. A clear sign of this is printed on the back of the 30 yuan ticket required to enter the village center: “Please do not offer food or money to the children in the village, as they will grow up without learning the value of earning.”

Apart from changing his perspective on rural life and academic research, Yang, the post-doc fellow, has also felt Azheke’s influence on his outlook toward life. “Their mindset is much more peaceful and unburdened by the pressures of external materialism, nor are they consumed by the anxieties of city life. Apart from shaping my personal views, Azheke has reminded me that happiness does not necessarily come from material abundance, but from a more balanced and contented way of living.”

The Azheke Plan has become a prime model of how rural tourism development and heritage protection can work together to create new meaningful experiences for the world to enjoy. With plans for the Azheke model to be replicated in the remote Samba Rice Terraces in Honghe county, and Tuygou village in Turpan, Xinjiang, rural-tourism development seems to have uncovered a new path to revive remote regions of the country.

I hopped down towards the rice terraces behind the village and looked towards the valley as the terraces disappeared over the horizon into the low-hanging clouds below. Local farmers toiled away, maintaining the precious crops growing slowly beneath the water, as tourists scamper around enjoying their most likely once-in-a-lifetime trip to Azheke village. An old man hiked up, balancing along the terrace edges as he dragged a young toddler tired of the endless walking, reminding me of the countless challenges this ancient village has overcome.