Hainan’s rural revitalization taps into the energy and wisdom of returning college students

By / HICN / Updated: 11:36,23-September-2021

Citan is a well-known ecological village located in the heart of Ding’an county, Hainan, situated along the Longzhou river in Xinzhu township.

The village was built during the reign of Emperor Jiajing during the Ming Dynasty and dates back over 500 years. The village now houses some 145 families and has a total population of 720 people. 

In 2014, Citan Village was named a "Hainan Provincial Health Village", and in 2016 it was named a "Demonstration Base of Socialist Core Values in Hainan." In 2017, it was listed as a "Hainan Civilization Village," and the movie "The Break-up Season" was filmed in the village and later released in more than 4,500 theaters nationwide.


Nowadays, the village plays an important role in Hainan’s rural revitalization efforts. In recent years, college students returning to the village have improved living conditions and provided jobs for local residents.

In the past, Citan Village was a mess, and many of the houses were derelict and in disrepair. Many of the young people had fled the area for city life and only the elderly and very young remained.

The village has an abundance of natural resources, such as the Longzhou River, betel nuts, rubber trees, and acres of farmland.


Citan has now become a model of how villages can prosper from their locally grown agricultural products and how introducing new products can pave the way for a brighter future. 

The village has opened a nature school, which teaches people from the village and beyond about local agriculture and the key village industries such as the hunai mushroom, pineapples, tangerines, and coffee processing. 


Tech savvy college students and volunteers from the tourism collective took village products, repackaged, rebranded, and put them on the E-commerce market, which is where the village sells most of their produce. 


Through sightseeing, tourism, and selling agricultural products online, the village has managed to turn over around two million RMB in recent years.

In the past few years the village nature school has attracted around 2,000 families to Citan Village to participate in outdoor classroom activities.

Citan hopes to expand into tourism and sightseeing activities in the future, but there is still a way to go. Presently there is one B&B, and there are plans to build another. 


Hu Shize, Chairman of the Ding’an Citan Sightseeing and Tourism Cooperative believes that people are the most important thing in the development of the village, especially the return of young college students. 




This is a co-production with Tropicalhainan.com, and copyright belongs to HIMC and www.hicn.cn

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