Infusion of fresh blood gives villages fresh appeal

When Ye Liqin visited the village of Pingtian for the first time four years ago, the welcoming committee that greeted her was decidedly hostile - a group of barking dogs.

Her next encounter, with a group of gray-haired old people sitting outside soaking up the sun was a little less hostile, but they were not exactly effusive either, with fixed stares that seemed to ask what such a young woman could be doing in the village, nestled in a mountain in Songyang county, Zhejiang province.

Ye, then 26, says she despaired at being the only young person in the village, to which she had traveled to run several homestay hotels and a restaurant, at a time when the hospitality business in rural China was beginning to thrive.