To learn from the practical experience of poverty reduction in China’s tourism, build tourism assistance as a new classroom and new position for national education, and promote the implementation of the fundamental task of universities and colleges to cultivate morality, the University Tourism Assistance Alliance held the first “Azheke Initiative” study camp from July 5 to 9 in Yuanyang County, Yunnan Province. Faculty, staff and postgraduate representatives from the Department of Culture and Tourism of the School of Management, Shandong University, participated in this activity to implement the spirit of unity of knowledge and action into rural revitalization, showing the practical results in advancing high-quality theme education with knowledge.
On July 6 and 7, the summer camp went into the core area of Azheke village and visited the village history museum, Docynia Tree scenic spot, Qingkou Hani folk culture eco-tourism village, Terraced Field Museum, etc., learning more about the history of the development and current situation of the Azheke Initiative and having an immersive experience of the tourism project of Hani Terraced Field World Cultural Heritage Area. On July 8, the camp went to Jianshui County to visit the ancient city of Jianshui, Confucian Temple, and the Zhu’s Family Garden(Zhujiahuayuan), and conducted research on the development and utilization of the tourism resources and heritage preservation of the ancient city. During the research process, Professor Bao Jigang, the head of “Azheke Initiative”, and his team members carried out a series of lectures focusing on China’s tourism poverty reduction model, practical experience of the Azheke Initiative, sustainable development way of heritage conservation and tourism, tourism support from universities and the model of Fengqing County, etc., sharing their valuable experience of combining tourism study and practice in a vivid and in-depth manner.
Through the study, faculty and students of the Department of Culture and Tourism understood that the development of tourism is not necessarily to develop large industries and plan big projects, but to be close to the needs of high-quality development of culture and tourism industry to find out the most concerned problems of the farmers in the process of the rural revitalization with practicable solutions. University tourism assistance is never a copy of successful cases, but to analyze their own characteristics according to the actual countryside, and then learn from the experience that can be replicated. In addition to learning advanced experience and operation mode, faculty and students of the Department of Culture and Tourism also conducted research and feedback on the shortcomings and deficiencies of the initiative, and carried out in-depth exchanges and discussions with the Sun Yat-sen University team and teams from other universities in the alliance on the sustainable development of Azheke Initiative and ways to help universities in tourism. “the activity let me immersed perception of the whole process from planning to implementation of the initiative. As a second-year postgraduate, I realized that whether it is tourism planning or any academic research should be more down-to-earth, and observe and research in the field to obtain first-hand information, laying a solid foundation for the research.” Shao Cui said.
The experience gained from this research will be transformed into practical actions for faculty and students of the Department of Culture and Tourism to help the development of rural tourism with their professional knowledge, and further deepen the series of work of the Department of Culture and Tourism’s “Party Building + Rural Revitalization”, “Party Building + Tourism Poverty Alleviation”, and Rural Tourism Counseling Station of Shandong University, making contributions in the rural revitalization and the University Tourism Assistance Alliance.
Located in the core area of Hani Terraces World Cultural Landscape in Yuanyang County, Honghe Prefecture, Yunnan Province, Azheke Village has become one of the five key villages in the bid for the heritage of Hani Terraces in Honghe River due to its well-preserved spatial elements of forests, terraces, villages, and water systems, mushroom house architecture, and traditional culture of the Hani ethnic group. Meanwhile, Azheke is also a typical poor village. Since 2018, the local government has invited Professor Bao Jigang’s team from Sun Yat-sen University’s School of Tourism to guide and lead the villagers to carry out the “Azheke Initiative”. They advocated the “endogenous village collective-led” rural tourism development model to help the villagers to set up village collective tourism companies, develop rural tourism economy, protect cultural heritage and reshape cultural identity. Since 2019, Azheke Village has been awarded “China’s Beautiful Leisure Village”, “China’s Characteristic Minority Village”, and “National Key Village of Rural Tourism”. It is also on the list of CCTV documentary “Farewell to Poverty” and Xinhua News Agency documentary “China’s Poverty Reduction Code”. In 2022, it was selected as one of the “Top 100 Global Tourism and Poverty Alleviation Cases” by the World Tourism Alliance, and attended the international conference as the only case, presenting the results to representatives of 24 countries and providing a China solution for global tourism poverty alleviation.
