Tourism bolsters Bama village's poverty alleviation efforts

After years of development, Pinglin village of Natao township in Bama Yao autonomous county, Hechi has become the largest rural tourism site in the county, helping lift villagers out of poverty.

Nowadays, beautiful houses alongside mountains and rivers in Pinglin village create a new and elegant image of rural beauty, completely getting rid of the image of an impoverished village from a few years ago.

The upgrading of the rural power grid has greatly helped the development of the village's tourism. Currently, the village is developing a collective tourism economy. Villagers have opened snack workshops, farmhouses, and specialty shops to live a better life.

In the past two years, 50 households in Ganyan village of Pinglin have opened farm hotels, and a steady stream of visitors has allowed them to increase their income by nearly 30,000 yuan ($4,346.15) per year.

Due to the unique environment and improving infrastructure, the tourism industry of Pinglin village is becoming increasingly prosperous. It was selected as one of the first batch of tourist villages in the country.

The poverty incidence rate of Pinglin village dropped from 20.35 percent in 2015 to 1.08 percent in 2019. The average annual income of villagers has increased from less than 4,000 yuan to more than 20,000 yuan.