Alpine style scales new heights

At the foothills of Huangshan Mountain, a UNESCO World Cultural and Natural Heritage Site in East China's Anhui province, Armin Schober, an Austrian, and his Chinese wife, Huang Qiong, run a homestay, which combines traditional Chinese architecture and Western interior design.

With intricately carved wooden windows embedded with colorful glass and European antique bronze chandeliers in its front hall, it has become a popular destination in Tachuan village, Huangshan, Anhui.

Named Alina's Garden after their 6-year-old daughter, the homestay is where Schober hopes that his daughter can enjoy a picturesque landscape reminiscent of his childhood at the foot of the Austrian Alps.

Before traveling to Tachuan, the couple lived in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, where Huang ran an advertising company. Their daughter was born in 2018. Tired of the hustle and bustle of city life, they hoped to move to a place where their daughter could be closer to nature.

A trip to Tachuan in 2021 helped them make up their mind to move to the small mountain village to start a rural homestay.

To Schober, Tachuan made him feel like home.

Transferring the company in Shenzhen and purchasing the seven-year management right for 2 million yuan ($278,380), the couple turned the ancient building into their dream home.

Born in a small mountain village near Innsbruck, Schober says that his homestay should create a fusion experience between the East and the West and bring the best of both worlds.

"I am pretty confident we will receive more visitors here in Huangshan, especially foreign friends, in the future," he says.

As he expected with their business booming, the couple opened a restaurant in nearby Hongcun village with its signature dish of Schober's handmade pizza. While running his own business, Schober wants to let the ancient village to be seen more by the world. According to UNESCO, the Hongcun village preserves to a remarkable extent the appearance of nonurban settlements of a type that largely disappeared or were transformed during the last century.

Every Thursday night since June, he has set up a free English class in his restaurant.

"Living and doing business in this tranquil and beautiful place really makes me feel happy," he says, adding that he always wants to do more to make the village a better place.

Learning English at the restaurant, Sun Min, a local cafe owner, is happy to see increasing numbers of foreign tourists visiting the village.

In recent years, new businesses, including homestays, have been flourishing around Huangshan Mountain amid the country's rural vitalization drive, creating more jobs for villagers and improving their incomes.

Known as a tourist city with dozens of national-level tourist spots, Huangshan saw a significant rise in revenue from January to June, seeing about 40.5 million tourists with a total tourism revenue reaching 37.33 billion yuan, according to official statistics.