Reporters recently followed the route of the Red Army's Long March into Jiangzhou Town, Huidong County, Liangshan Prefecture, Sichuan Province. From sprawling blueberry plantations to the "Moshang Jiangzhou" pastoral complex, from the open-air stage of the rice paddy music festival to the bustling market of the Double Delicacy Food Festival, they explored firsthand the agricultural-culture-tourism integration practices of this town at the junction of Sichuan and Yunnan.
During festivals, a large number of self-driving tourists from Guizhou, Yunnan, and other places pour into Jiangzhou. Farmland transforms into cultural tourism consumption scenes, local agricultural products are sold directly to tourists through cultural tourism channels, and villagers can earn income right at their doorsteps.
In May 1935, after skillfully crossing the Jinsha River, the Red Army marched north along its banks, passing through Huidong County and sowing the seeds of revolution on this land. More than 90 years later, this red hot land by the Jinsha River is writing a new chapter of development with a fresh look of agricultural-culture-tourism integration. Jiangzhou, once a traditional agricultural town, now has thousands of acres of contiguous blueberries, music melodies echoing through the rice paddies, and bustling field markets, with agriculture, culture, and tourism deeply intertwined here.
As a provincial-level pilot town for urban-rural integration and a key central town at the prefecture level, Jiangzhou Town leverages its agricultural foundation and ecological resources, using festival activities as a traffic-driving tool, light-asset operations as its hallmark, and farmer-linked benefits as its core, exploring a rural revitalization path of deep integration of agriculture, culture, and tourism. Huidong County has proposed leading with three 10-billion-yuan industrial clusters in clean energy, mineral resource development, and agricultural-culture-tourism integrated development, aiming to achieve a total output value of over 15 billion yuan from the entire agricultural-culture-tourism industry chain by 2030, with Jiangzhou Town serving as an important carrier of this goal.
Rural consumption boom driven by the Rice Paddy Music Festival and Double Delicacy Food Festival
Festival activities are the most direct way Jiangzhou attracts visitors through agricultural-culture-tourism integration. The "Huidong Eye" open-air main stage in Zhonghe Village is the venue for the rice paddy music festival. Every year during the rice harvest season, the music festival is held as scheduled, inviting renowned local Yi singers from Liangshan to perform, attracting a large number of young self-driving tourists from surrounding counties and cities. During last year's festival, peak daily visitor flow reached over 70,000, hitting the venue's maximum capacity and requiring crowd control measures.
Complementing the rice paddy music festival seasonally is the "Double Delicacy" Food Festival held from late October to December each year. "Double Delicacy" refers to Huidong's specialty black truffles and black goats. Huidong is the largest truffle-producing county in China, and the truffle harvest season coincides with the peak consumption period for black goats. The Double Delicacy Food Festival uses this as its core IP, featuring truffle banquets, specialty food markets, and performances by local singers, becoming a flagship winter tourism product. According to the operator, foot traffic during the Double Delicacy Food Festival is even higher than during national holidays like May Day and National Day.
In addition to the two major brand festivals, Jiangzhou has also established a system of themed activities every month. A small Torch Festival is held in July, and the Yi New Year offers ethnic cultural experiences. In June when lotus flowers bloom, field games such as catching fish in paddy fields and catching ducks in rice paddies are set up in the lotus area. Regular events include village BA basketball games, pastoral color runs, and rural cooking competitions. In spring and autumn, farming study activities are offered to student groups, with last year's study tours alone receiving about 9,000 students.
The Modern Market opens simultaneously with the music festival, setting up cultural and creative stalls, artisan demonstrations, and agricultural specialty exhibitions along field paths, creating a unique pastoral and artistic atmosphere. Promotion of these festival activities relies mainly on short-video matrices and influencer preheating. The operator releases event previews through platforms such as Douyin, Kuaishou, and WeChat Channels, coordinating with local and external influencers for live-streaming traffic. During events, villagers can set up stalls on-site to sell fried potatoes, free-range eggs, local fresh fruits, and specialty products, directly increasing their income on the spot. In terms of visitor structure, Jiangzhou's tourists are mainly self-driving, with the core customer base coming from Panzhihua, only a 1 to 1.5-hour drive away. Neighboring counties and cities in Yunnan, such as Qiaojia, Dongchuan, and Luquan, are also important source markets.
From planting base to Blueberry Island: a full-chain exploration extending from primary industry to tertiary industry
Blueberries are the industrial foundation of Jiangzhou Town's agricultural-culture-tourism integration. The blueberry planting base of Huidong Qingshanlan Fruit Co., Ltd. is located in Jiangzhou Town, under the brand name "Qingshanlan." The company settled in Jiangzhou in 2018, initially brought in through investment attraction by Shaanxi Haisheng Group. After equity restructuring in 2022, it became a mixed-ownership enterprise controlled by Liangshan Prefecture Agricultural Investment Group. The base covers a total of 5,000 acres, of which 4,500 acres are standardized blueberry planting areas, with another 500 acres dedicated to tissue culture seedling cultivation. All land is transferred from surrounding villagers, with an initial rent of 1,200 yuan per acre, increasing by 5% every three years. The rent has now risen to 1,200 to 1,300 yuan per acre, with total annual land rent expenditure of approximately 5 million yuan.
The blueberry peak production period runs from October to the end of April the following year. During the 2024-2025 production season, the base achieved a total output of over 2,000 tons, generating sales revenue of 110 million to 120 million yuan. The farmer-benefit effects are highly significant. During the peak harvest season, temporary workers at the base can reach up to 2,000 people, all local villagers, with annual wage payments of approximately 27 million yuan. The company has also signed profit-sharing agreements with five village collectives in Jiangzhou Town, paying a fixed annual dividend of 500,000 yuan.
In terms of technology research and development, the base has established cooperation with Northwest A&F University, focusing on new blueberry variety development and cultivation technology improvement. Technical experts provide on-site guidance, focusing on breakthroughs in greenhouse regulation technology to achieve early market entry for blueberries. The "Qingshanlan" brand implements strict quality control standards, with wholesale unit prices 20% to 30% higher than competitors at the same quality level, and price gaps of over 50% compared to lower-quality ordinary blueberries. Products are divided into three major sales regions: South China, East China, and North China, with stable supply cooperation already established with Sam's Club.
Adjacent to the planting base, the Blueberry Island project, invested in and built by Huidong County state-owned assets, has a total investment of over 200 million yuan. Positioned as a blueberry science education demonstration zone, it features 103 guest rooms and will be operated by the Dali art homestay brand "Qianli Zou Danqi." Scheduled to officially open soon, it will fill the current accommodation gap and complete the full-chain layout of "planting + processing + cultural tourism study tours."
Light-asset operations and a sustainable path to diversified income growth
The operating entity for Jiangzhou's agricultural-culture-tourism integration is Jiangyun Urban-Rural Integrated Development Co., Ltd., under the county's state-owned asset platform. Wang Yuanjie, the company's investment and operations director, told reporters that the company operates entirely on a light-asset model, with self-investment of approximately 10 million yuan in the pastoral complex sector. The company has explored three models for linking with farmers: first, an enterprise self-operated model where the company fully invests in and operates homestays, restaurants, and camping bases, with villagers receiving dual income from land rent and wages; second, a model of introducing mature external operators for co-construction, where merchants rent idle villagers' houses, and villagers enjoy triple benefits of rent, shares, and wages; and third, a model of farmer self-management with enterprise infrastructure investment and profit sharing, where the enterprise handles infrastructure investment, farmers operate independently, and profits are split 50-50. At the Jiudawan restaurant in Jianshe Village, farmers can earn 25,000 to 26,000 yuan per month during peak seasons.
During project implementation, villagers' willingness to participate has undergone significant changes. After the model projects became profitable, six or seven households in Zhonghe and Jianshe villages have independently renovated their homes to operate homestays and restaurants. Zhonghe Village has a registered population of 1,205, with a permanent population of about 1,160, and few long-term migrant workers, showing no signs of hollowing out.
In terms of agricultural product sales, local specialty products are rich in variety. The operator has created the "Moshang Jiangzhou" proprietary cultural tourism IP, launching products such as blueberry wine, wheat craft beer, and truffle liquor. Collaborating with local influencers for live-streaming e-commerce, sales profits are split 50-50. Last January, the camping base achieved nearly 400,000 yuan in monthly revenue.
However, Jiangzhou's agricultural-culture-tourism integration still faces some shortcomings. For instance, the standardization level of agricultural products is relatively low, with farmers' self-produced specialty products mostly workshop-style, unable to enter e-commerce channels. Additionally, seasonal unevenness in visitor flow and relatively small weekday visitor numbers remain issues to be addressed.
From a riverside mountain village that the Red Army passed through more than 90 years ago to today's provincial-level pilot town for agricultural-culture-tourism integrated development, Jiangzhou Town's practice demonstrates that relying on local agricultural foundations and ecological resources, using festival activities to attract visitors, light-asset operations to reduce risk, and farmer-linked benefits as the fundamental goal is a viable path for mountainous counties to promote rural revitalization. With the opening of Blueberry Island, the improvement of more business formats, and the advancement of Huidong County's 10-billion-yuan agricultural-culture-tourism industrial cluster, this small town by the Jinsha River is steadily advancing on the path of agricultural-culture-tourism integration.