Recently, a video of Mamitiana Rajaonarison, prime minister of the Republic of Madagascar, visiting Shibadong Village in Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture and enjoying shopping went viral on social media. In golden autumn, Shibadong Village features grey-tiled stilted houses scattered along the hillside. Villagers are busy running businesses right at their doorsteps, receiving an endless stream of Chinese and foreign tourists.
  
Shibadong Village is the core area of the Wuling Mountain (Xiangxi) Tujia and Miao Cultural Ecological Protection Zone and was included in the fourth batch of State protection list of traditional villages in 2016. The village has deeply cultivated the revitalization and utilization of cultural heritage, forging a distinctive path of culture and tourism empowering rural revitalization. In 2025, the village's per capita net income was 30,755 CNY, increased by 18 times compared with 2013, and the village's collective economic income reached 7.03 million CNY.

Traditional dwelling renovations adhere to the principle of "restoring the old as it was to preserve its original appearance," with over 90% of the original Miao-style residential features retained. In 2018, Hunan took the lead in establishing a village-resident planner system in Shibadong Village, introducing a planning and design team to compile and implement a practical village plan with multi-plan integration, and completed the renovation and quality improvement of 225 houses through tailored plans for each household.
 
Without changing the main architectural style, the old dwellings in Lizizhai were transformed into a Miao embroidery workshop. In some residences, original living spaces such as the main hall and hearth are retained, balancing residential use and folk custom experience. Renovated historical buildings can serve red-themed study tours and folk activities, achieving a shift from static protection to adaptive reuse.
  
Local authorities have set up a database of local building craftsmen to pass on traditional Miao building techniques. At the same time, with the help of the "Shibadong Village in the Cloud"–a smart, red tourism real-scene 3D platform—VR and 3D modeling technologies are used to digitally archive and preserve buildings and folk customs.
  
To revitalize intangible cultural heritage, Shibadong Village has innovated the "company + village collective + female embroiderers" model. Miao embroidery products sell well overseas, with an annual output value exceeding 20 million CNY, enabling more than 500 women from eight surrounding villages to find work nearby. The village has established a multi-generational team for intangible cultural heritage inheritance, with older inheritors such as Shi Shunlian and Long Meizhi passing on skills on-site. "Post-2000s" young designers incorporate China-chic elements to innovate Miao embroidery products. In 2025, Shibadong Village received more than 260,000 orders through e-commerce livestreaming, with sales exceeding three million CNY.
 
Singing Miao songs, playing Miao drums, and performing unique Miao feats are regularly staged in village courtyards, and special activities such as the Ganqiu Festival (harvest celebration) and Miao New Year add festive atmosphere. Today, Shibadong Village has formed a virtuous cycle of "protection and renovation – adaptive reuse - cultural inheritance - thriving rural industries - increased income for villagers." It has successively been recognized as a national 5A-level tourist attraction, a national patriotic education demonstration base, and one of the Best Tourism Villages by the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UN Tourism).

This article is from Hunan Provincial Government. www.enghunan.gov.cn. 

Translator: Pang Yuehui 

Chinese source: hunan.gov.cn