Shanghai Noon Watch Online

[Cecila Dammrich]

Youngwomen of the Miao ethnic group parade into a venue hosting a soccer match of the Rongjiang Village Super League, also known as Cunchao, in Rongjiang county, Qiandongnan Miao and Dong autonomous prefecture, Southwest China's Guizhou province, on July 28.[Photo provided by Zhu Xingxin/China Daily]

Amateur players from across the country gathered in the county, located in Qiandongnan Miao and Dong autonomous prefecture, Southwest China's Guizhou province, to compete against one another, filling the stands with visitors and drawing a huge amount of online viewers.

The Rongjiang Village Super League, also known as Cunchao, has put the county on the map. Starting on May 13 and concluding on July 29, the league features 20 amateur teams drawn from local villages. The event became a national sensation, and a deal was recently struck with the English Premier League which will see the EPL provide training courses to the league, and promote soccer development in the area.

Over the three months of competition, at least 1 million people attended the matches in person and more than 50 million watched online, according to local authorities. Videos and live broadcasts of the event went viral, having received more than 30 billion clicks.

On the sidelines, according to Xu Bo, head of the county, more than 2,200 local livestream teams have been established, which helps more than 8,000 local residents increase their income, and free training has been given to local intangible cultural heritage inheritors, stay-at-home women and young people coming back to the village from cities.

She decided to combine traditional textile art from the region with soccer elements and designed a series of cultural and creative products, which have attracted a large number of people among the crowds who came to watch the sport.

"We are still figuring out our customer service and delivery processes, so it is a bit chaotic, but we are also happy because having that many orders so early on is a great sign of progress," she adds.

Lai started training local village women in the ethnic cloth production that involves weaving, embroidering and dyeing in 2015, and has formed cooperation ties with more than 2,000 of them from more than 20 villages in Rongjiang county.

"In the morning, you can ride bikes along the trails in the sunshine, breathe in the mountain air, and you can get closer to nature in the abandoned quarries, which have been transformed into camping grounds," says Zhang Yun, a local resident.

"At noon, you can enjoy a game of flying discs on the big grassy lawn, go to the library in the afternoon to see exhibitions, and in the evening, there are occasional light shows and murder mystery games," Zhang says, adding that the rural tourism offerings are becoming increasingly diverse.

In July 2021, Yucun launched the global partners program to invite young talent to jointly work on research-based education, rural tourism, cultural creativity, agriculture and forestry industry, digital economy, green finance, zero-carbon technology, and healthcare.

He says that he hopes to combine Chinese animation with the idyllic countryside, exploring more opportunities to empower the rural community. More than 260 cultural events are hosted in the village every year.

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