A home inn in Bishan village. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Exhibition center

Far from the sorry sight that Sun found when he first went to the village six years ago, it now has bookshops, teahouses, an exhibition center and temples. Many traditional festivals and rituals have been restored, and this attracts tourists, he says.

"It is critical in rural development to restore lifestyle, culture and history, which have been strongly compromised by modernization," Sun says.

The idea of rural revival is not to give farmers what is popular in cities, he says, but to respect a village's culture.

Li, the expert on rural development, says China has been an agricultural society for thousands of years, and all of Chinese culture is ultimately derived from villages.

"Industrialization has been in conflict with Chinese culture, and the elites and artists have gone back to the roots to revive that culture."