Shaanxi village scores with soccer tourism

Ten more families have applied to turn their houses into homestays this year in a village in Shaanxi province in the hopes that soon, they too will be able to ride its tourism boom.

The village in question, Yingpan, lies deep in northwestern China, and its boom results from a soccer training center built there in 2017. The center is why, following the conclusion of preliminary matches for the second China Youth Football League on April 13, Yingpan hosted 11 teams and their families from five provinces and expects to host more provincial — and possibly even national — youth soccer games in the future.

Last year, the 31 homestays currently in the village earned nearly 2.5 million yuan ($360,000), an additional 80,000 yuan per household, which is nearly double the average village household income.

"Soccer and training sessions bring people, and people bring income," said Ma Jun, who has been serving as the first secretary of the village in Liuba county since 2021 after being sent there by the sports bureau of Hanzhong city in Shaanxi.

Only a decade ago, Yingpan was a poor village with bad roads. Most villagers eked out a living by growing traditional Chinese medicines.

Since it began developing sports and tourism in recent years, Yingpan has witnessed rapid development. Now, nearly 90 percent of its 349 villagers make a living from tourism and agriculture near home, and only 10 percent have left to find work in bigger cities, down from 50 percent a decade ago.

The youth soccer training center started to be built in the village in 2016 as a part of a plan to create more interest in soccer in Hanzhong. These days, there are seven standard training fields and seven athletic apartments in the village deep in the Qinling Mountains.

Last year, soccer events and training programs earned the village a direct benefit of nearly 10 million yuan.

"Yingpan is expecting more matches and more tourists this year," Ma said, adding that with average temperatures under 20 C in summer, it is one of the most suitable places in the region for this kind of training.

Soccer is everywhere in Yingpan. It is part of the physical education program at primary and middle schools, and even in kindergartens in Liuba.

"Everyone can play here," Ma remembers saying to villagers when he arrived in 2021. "Every summer, teenagers and their families come from all over the country for training. It can be difficult to get a bed, and some people have to stay in nearby villages. There's great business potential, so we need to increase our capacity to serve visitors."

But not everyone was convinced, and with the epidemic affecting travel to the village since early 2020, many weren't willing to invest in renovating or building houses, even though village leaders managed to secure mortgage-free loans with annual interest rates as low as 2.15 percent.

Zhang Faming, a cattle farmer, was one of those initially against the plan.

"I thought, how can I feed myself with a homestay? I didn't want to live on air," the 60-year-old recalled, adding that at the time, he preferred to trust in his cattle.

These days, Zhang also has a homestay under construction, and his daughter has returned to Yingpan to help him take care of business.

The change happened gradually. Ma spoke to the villagers family by family in the hopes of encouraging them to cash in on the opportunities.

"The most important job of the first secretary is to help develop the village so residents can make more money. I visited the villagers, helped them solve problems and also helped them better understand the new policies so they could take advantage of the policies."

He said that when he first arrived, he was astonished by the construction around the village, which was why he felt Yingpan's best bet was to develop soccer-related tourism.

"We had a great soccer training center in a small village, thanks to local government support," he said. "But I wanted villagers to benefit from it, too."

Developing homestays was the most direct way to increase village incomes, but Ma and his colleague also plan to help villagers set themselves up as vendors, open restaurants or sell agricultural produce such as TCM ingredients and honey.

The human resources and social security bureau in Liuba sent a team to Yingpan in February to train 40 villagers to either work at or open their own restaurants. Training is held regularly to help villagers start businesses.

In addition to soccer, Ma and his colleague have been introducing other activities such as skiing, camping, and Go and model airplane contests.

"By expanding what we offer, it's my hope that more visitors will come every year," he said.

Ma's term as village secretary will end in August, but he has decided to remain on the job.

"I will stay on, because some promises I made to the villagers have yet to be realized."