From villages to the national stage: Rural cultural and sports events boom across China

①：Basketball fans cheer during a match of the Zhejiang Provincial City Basketball League (ZheBA) games in Zhuji, a county-level city in Shaoxing, east China's Zhejiang Province, July 19, 2025, during which team Zhuji wins the title. (Photo/Zhou Zhihao)

②: A customer sits by a floor-to-ceiling window enjoying the scenery at a village cafe in Anji county, east China's Zhejiang Province. (Photo courtesy of the interviewee)

③: Performers showcase local cultural and creative products at a village fashion show in Wuzhishan, south China's Hainan Province. (Xinhua/Zhang Liyun)

④: Players compete during the provincial finals of the "Village BA" basketball tournament in Lichuan county, east China's Jiangxi Province, Nov. 1, 2025. (Photo/Huang Zhan)

⑤: Players compete during a match of the 2025 Global Village Super League in Rongjiang county, southwest China's Guizhou Province, Oct. 1, 2025. The Global Village Super League attracts soccer teams from countries like Brazil, the U.S., Spain, and Vietnam. (Photo/Pan Shaoping)

In October this year, a department under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs released its first report on rural cultural and sports activities, which encompass 24 categories, with rural areas nationwide hosting more than 2.2 million such events throughout 2024.

A nationwide surge in events such as the Village Super League, the Village Basketball Association (Village BA), the Village Volleyball League, village cafe, village reading fair, and village opera performance is helping advance all-around rural revitalization.

In Yucun village, Anji county, east China's Zhejiang Province, a cafe named Waterfall Coffee, transformed from a former mine, opened this August. Here, coffee, cliffside dining, water paddling and music bars coexist, creating an immersive experience.

Bu Tianyu, operations manager of Waterfall Coffee, said most cafes under the brand are situated in Anji's rural areas. Since opening its first such cafe in 2016, the emerging brand has found success, now operating 11 shops across Zhejiang. Most are adapted to local conditions, utilizing mining pits, caves, streams and waterfalls to create different iterations and integrate the cafes into the natural landscape.

Anji, with a permanent population of fewer than 600,000, is home to over 300 cafes, giving it more cafes per capita than many first-tier cities. Among them, the most renowned are typically village cafes. On April 5, 2024, Deep Blue, one of Anji's most popular cafes, set a record by selling 8,818 cups of coffee in a single day.

Bu explained that all village cafes of Waterfall Coffee partner with local villages, which contribute resources as equity shares and receive profit distributions at year's end. The cafes also employ villagers for parking management and cleaning, helping meet local employment needs.

"We define village cafes not merely as coffee shops, but as a tourism business form," said Jiang Yuanqing, director of the industrial development section at the county's bureau of culture, sports and tourism. Anji's village cafes have always emphasized harmonious coexistence between people and nature, fully incorporating local natural and cultural elements while introducing markets, camping, sports, adventure activities, music festivals and more.

Jiang noted that in the last three years, Anji has promoted the implementation of 617 rural youth entrepreneurship projects centered on village cafes, attracting 38,000 young people to the countryside and generating revenue of 750 million yuan (about $106.06 million). In the first half of this year alone, the county's village cafes received approximately 2.75 million tourist visits.

According to the report, western regions in China hold the most rural cultural and sports activities, averaging 628.6 events annually, with the largest growth rate—a 919.4 percent increase from 2021 to 2024. Such activities in eastern, central and northeastern regions surged 502.5 percent, 911.2 percent and 394.1 percent, respectively.

The Village Super League and the Village BA in southwest China's Guizhou Province have become renowned events both domestically and internationally.

On Aug. 23, the final of the 2025 Village Super League National Tournament was held in Rongjiang county, Guizhou, with the Jinli Chengjun football team from Zhaoqing, south China's Guangdong Province, securing the national championship.

On Oct. 17, the final of the 2025 National Beautiful Countryside Basketball Tournament (Village BA) took place in Taipan village, Taijiang county, Guizhou. A team from Jinjiang city in southeast China's Fujian Province won the championship.

Looking nationwide, competitions that bring professional standards to rural sports events are becoming increasingly common. The "Village BA" basketball tournament in Zhuji, a county-level city in Shaoxing, east China's Zhejiang Province, has injected new vitality into the city through exceptionally high public participation.

Zhuji has long been a basketball stronghold. In 2011, Zhuji was awarded a Guinness World Records Certificate for "the most standard basketball courts in a county-level city"—over 2,000—by the headquarters of Guinness World Records in Shanghai.

Among Zhuji's 1.08 million registered residents, one in five participates in basketball-related activities and spends significant time playing or watching the sport daily or weekly, according to Yang Binbin, deputy secretary-general of the Zhuji Village BA organizing committee.

Even so, the popularity of Zhuji's Village BA exceeded initial expectations. In the first year, 281 teams played 680 matches; the second year saw 311 teams play 780 matches; the third year brought 327 teams playing 856 matches.

From its first championship final, the tournament had no choice but to start selling tickets. Yang explained that the arena at the time could seat only 6,000 people, yet tens of thousands wanted to get in. Today, the arena for the final can accommodate 15,000 spectators, but tickets are still in short supply, and all ticket revenue is donated to charity. The event has had title sponsors since its inaugural year.

Yang said all participating players must meet one of two criteria: they must either be born in villages or have lived in one for at least five years.

At the final of the 2025 Village Super League National Tournament, team Zhuji achieved fifth place, setting Zhejiang's best-ever result at this event.

Rural cultural and sports activities are driving economic and social development in entirely new ways. From village song contest and village painting to village chess, village fishing, village cooking and village cafe, activities rooted in rural areas are contributing to all-around rural revitalization thanks to their growing popularity.

According to the report, during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025), economic benefits from village cultural and sports activities have grown continuously. During this period, such events exceeding 100,000 online views each have cumulatively realized economic benefits of 43.61 billion yuan. In 2025, such activities are projected to generate economic benefits of 14.28 billion yuan, representing a 58-fold increase from 2021.