Village football, basketball tournaments spark nation-wide enthusiasm for ethnic culture

Highly spirited village football and basketball tournaments are heating up in southwest China's Guizhou Province, attracting tourists from across the nation and beyond to immerse themselves in authentic ethnic culture and sports excitement.

Two rural sports federations -- the Village Super League (VSL) and the Village Basketball Association (VBA) -- started from grassroots initiatives and won the hearts of the nation as well as government support. More than mere sports leagues, they have become catalysts for economic growth and cultural celebration, igniting a wave of rural revitalization through tourism and community engagement.

The VSL is in full swing in the province's Rongjiang County, a rural area largely populated by members of the Miao and Dong ethnic minorities. Despite the rain, spectators were thrilled during the "Super Saturday" event that brought a variety of ethnic performances alongside the football matches.

"I came from Chongqing. The atmosphere is incredibly enthusiastic. Everyone feels inspired," said tourist Ms. Liu.

"I came from Shenzhen, Guangdong. I arrived here today and felt deeply connected both as a fan and spectator. I was so thrilled that my hands even went numb," said Mr. Fu, another tourist.

While the sports matches attract visitors, the real strategic impact unfolds off the field. Events like international invitation games and gourmet competitions draw tourists from across China and abroad to Guizhou.

Local authorities are promoting a "super economy" covering food, accommodation, transportation, and travel, fostering integrated development of rural culture, sports, tourism, and business, thus enriching local livelihoods.

"The Village Super League aims to foster a joyful economy, The core of the league is rural revitalization and promoting high-quality development within our county. Based on Rongjiang County's advantages in ethnic, culinary, and ecological cultures, we are leveraging strategic tools in the digital economy era, such as new media, to create the Village Super League brand, using football as a medium and culture as content to drive economic activities,” said Xu Bo, mayor of Rongjiang County.

Since the league's precipitous rise following its founding in 2023, the local hospitality sector has flourished, with hotels, inns, and rural guesthouses sprouting up rapidly. Bed capacities have doubled to over 10,000 in the county since the tournament's inception.

Rongjiang has also seen a surge of over 3,600 new businesses, including catering services, boosting market vitality. Over 132 brand authorizations for the VSL have attracted six major Chinese food and beverage companies to invest locally.

In addition to football, Rongjiang County is expanding its influence in schools with initiatives like the "Class Super League" and youth training systems. The county plans to launch a "Belt and Road Initiative" version of VSL tournaments in 2026 to further promote football culture.

"The core goal of the Village Super League is to create a platform of joy. First, we start by competing among ourselves, then invite people from across the nation to join us, and finally extend the invitation globally. This approach forms a dynamic platform and brand that fosters mutual empowerment and web traffic," said Mayor Xu.

Besides Rongjiang's football mania, the VBA in the nearby Taijiang County has garnered significant attention, with tournaments underway in the county's Taipan Village.

Since going viral in summer 2022, various grassroots basketball tournaments have thrived in Taijiang. This year, 25 provincial basketball associations competed in preliminary rounds, culminating in the finals to be hosted in the county from September to November.

In addition to on-site spectators, the VBA has captured significant online attention through live streaming of matches, highlight reels, and behind-the-scenes footage, sustaining high levels of enthusiasm.

Local initiatives to develop innovative filming techniques and improve media dissemination continue to generate online buzz. Currently, the VBA's online viewership has surpassed 60 billion views.

2024 marks the third year of explosive growth for VBA in the region, with efforts focused on converting web traffic into economic development.

Taijiang County alone has welcomed over 2 million visitors since summer 2022, generating tourism revenue exceeding 2.3 billion yuan (over 316 million U.S. dollars).

Locally, the VBA brand continues to thrive with experiential shops, tea shops, restaurants, and over 100 cultural and creative products. Popular items like "Village Baby" dolls and basketballs featuring Miao embroidery patterns are a hit among fans and tourists alike.

Today, cultural and sports activities under the banner of the dual federations are thriving in Guizhou, driving integrated development across agriculture, culture, sports, and tourism.

Village football, basketball tournaments spark nation-wide enthusiasm for ethnic culture

A freelance writer from Australia has decided to become a permanent resident in China after living and working in Guangdong for 20 years, during which he has cycled through the country to see a real China and has witnessed the significant changes in the country.

Jerry Grey, 66, made his home in Zhongshan City of south China's Guangdong Province in 2004. The night he arrived in the city, he realized he had been misinformed about China.

"This used to be a supermarket. And my first day here, it was very late at night, 11, 12 o'clock at night. I got out of the car and walked through the supermarket and saw all the things that I carried with me from Australia. I had new shampoos and body washes and razor blades, all the things that I was told online you can't get these things in China, so you better buy them before you go. So I bought them all in Australia and carried them all to China. And I was misinformed. I didn't need to buy any of these things at all, because they're all cheaper here as well. I had to pay excess baggage in the airline because I was carrying so much weight. So that was a very strange experience. I also bought two bottles of Australian wine. And I can buy that in the supermarket, too," Grey said.

While serving as an English teacher at a foreign language school in Zhongshan, Grey spent a lot of his spare time traveling across China and fell in love with the welcoming people, beautiful landscapes, local cuisines, and a Chinese woman, who became his wife in 2009.

In 2014, Grey made a "crazy" decision to travel to Xinjiang by bicycle with a photographer friend, who is also a foreign expatriate.

"We left Zhongshan, traveled north into Hunan, and then Hubei, and then turned slightly northwest through Shaanxi, and then into Gansu, Ningxia, and across to Xinjiang. So that was quite an extended ride. That was 5,000 kilometers," Grey said.

It took them 57 days to finish that trip and finally see the magnificent views around Tianshan Mountains in Xinjiang.

"And the idea is that we want to see China. One of the most incredible things about riding a bike is the authenticity of the country, the real part of China," Grey said.

Grey has published a picture album titled "57 Days across China" to keep his memories alive and show people what he had seen during the journey. The funds raised from sales of the books have been used to help the people with disabilities in Zhongshan.

Over the past decade, Grey has ridden 35,000 kilometers in China, and his wife Liang Yuhua joined him in 2019.

In doing so, they have raised significant sums of money for people with disabilities and witnessed impressive changes in villages, where wide roads, modern home-stay hotels and restaurants have become common features in the past few years.

"In 2019, I noticed the significant changes when riding with Jerry. Especially, some rural areas are so clean that we didn't see any garbage. And the waste classification bins were placed neatly. So I told Jerry, 'see how great the changes that have happened in China over the years'," Liang said.

After retirement, Grey became a freelance writer. He has been posting videos on social media about what he has seen in China, including the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Link and the Village Basketball Association, an amateur rural basketball event that has become a nationwide sports phenomenon.

In recent years, Grey is impressed by the increasingly easier life in China, even for foreign travelers.

"So foreigners can actually open bank accounts in China. They can use WeChat and Alipay very, very simply as long as they're prepared before they arrive. Chinese payments are as convenient as it is possible to be," Grey said.

A few days ago, Grey went to the immigration office of Zhongshan and applied for a foreign permanent resident ID card.

"I think the time is right. I've lived here for 20 years, but for most of that time, I lived here on working permits and residence visas. Then when I retired from work, I'm on a spousal visa. And I think the time is right, because it gives me the card that I can travel around China without carrying my passport. And it becomes much more convenient. It's going quite smoothly. At the moment, we're waiting for the police checks to come back," he said.

Australian expat sees real China on bicycle