In Jinping County, Honghe Hani and Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan, nestled among the mountains of the Zhemi Lahu Township, the morning mist has just lifted. Sunlight pierces the clouds, casting its glow on the courtyard of the Zhemi Lahu Township Beilei Kindergarten, where a yellow and blue interlocking floor resembles a rainbow laid across the hillside. Over a dozen children, barefoot, chase each other across the colored squares, while the younger children form circles, weaving in and out beneath a rainbow parachute, their laughter echoing far down the valley. Just two years ago, this was a potholed, hardened cement surface.
"After laying the floor, the kindergarten's appearance changed dramatically. The children love playing on it, and even if they fall, they aren't scared because the hollow floor is elastic, and there are no issues when running," says the kindergarten principal. This transformation is not unique. From the banks of the Red River to the base of Mount Everest, from the Gobi Desert in Xinjiang to the China-Vietnam border, similar changes are occurring simultaneously in thousands of rural kindergartens across the country.
In 2020, Meituan partnered with One Foundation to launch the Meituan Rural Children's Playground Public Welfare Plan. Over the past five-plus years, it has pooled countless small acts of kindness through a productized "consumption as charity" model, reshaping the landscape of rural preschool education with a "hardware + equipment + training + operations" integrated approach. As of the end of May 2026, the plan has cumulatively built 5,152 playgrounds, covering 3,858 townships across 31 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the central government, directly benefiting 688,000 rural children.
This achievement rests on the collective support of 1.92 million public welfare merchants, 1.578 million individual donors, and 620 million consumers. It represents a collaborative path of good governance characterized by "government oversight, social participation, and public welfare follow-up."
Addressing a Pressing Societal Need
A safe, colorful playground might be standard in cities, but in many rural areas, it is a deep-seated longing for children. The year 2020 marked a critical juncture as China achieved decisive results in poverty alleviation and comprehensively advanced rural revitalization. While national investment in compulsory education was substantial, preschool education had not yet been incorporated into the compulsory system, leaving ample room for social forces to participate.
An evaluation team from Shaanxi Normal University pointed out that China's rural kindergartens started relatively late. Although significant progress has been made over the past decade, dual challenges of "resources" and "capacity" persist. While the issue of "access to kindergarten" is largely resolved, "access to quality education" is far from being achieved. Insufficient activity space, lack of equipment, inadequate physical education, and a shortage of professional teachers remain widespread. Kindergarten curricula, often designed to urban standards, can be ill-suited for rural villages. Rural teachers have fewer training opportunities and higher turnover, and commercial capital often overlooks rural markets. Over time, these areas became forgotten gaps.
Guidelines from the World Health Organization and China's own expert consensus recommend that young children engage in at least 60 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity daily. The ages of 3 to 6 are a critical period for gross motor skill development, physical fitness expansion, and exploring the world. Teacher Fan Hui from Dayi Town Central Kindergarten in Juye County, Heze City, Shandong Province, voiced a common concern among countless rural kindergarten heads: "Back then, our biggest worry was safety hazards. Little children run without a care, bumping into each other, stepping on each other, falling on the cement ground—scrapes and bruises were common."
Out of concern for the children, teachers often became overly cautious during outdoor activities, leading to conservative and monotonous routines. Beyond a large plastic slide used for years, the only usable equipment often consisted of homemade teaching aids crafted from old tires, empty bottles, and cardboard boxes. "More teacher-led activities, less child-initiated play" was the reality of outdoor time in rural kindergartens.
The lack of a safe place to run affects more than just physical fitness. At the foot of Mount Everest in Tibet, a six-year-old child, Xiao Ji, due to a weak constitution and introverted nature, sat motionless in the classroom for a long time after enrollment. In Tongren, Guizhou, another child, Zhu, became withdrawn and unwilling to play sports with peers due to frequent illness. Yet, "play" is one of the primary learning methods for this age group. Addressing this gap is precisely the societal need this public welfare plan aims to meet.
An Innovative Model for Sustainable Philanthropy
Unlike traditional aid that simply delivers materials and builds playgrounds, the Meituan Rural Children's Playground Plan leverages "technology + public welfare" to reconstruct how philanthropy operates. This aligns with Meituan's social value philosophy: "Technology for the people, for a better world together"—using technological public welfare to align commercial and social value. Its innovation is concentrated in three areas: mechanism, technology, and model.
Mechanism Innovation: Consumption as Charity
Traditional public welfare often follows a "blood transfusion" path: identify an issue, launch a concentrated fundraising campaign, execute it short-term, and seek exposure. This approach has high costs, high barriers, and limited scale, with goodwill often fading after the initial push. Meituan's solution is "productization." Merchants joining the Public Welfare Merchant Plan can set a donation amount for each order, with the system handling the rest automatically. Consumers can participate seamlessly by purchasing from merchants with the "Public Welfare Merchant" tag. Thus, goodwill transforms from a deliberate, additional action into a natural part of commercial activity.
Behind the 5,000+ playgrounds lies a proven public participation mechanism. At its core is "consumption as charity": after a consumer places an order with a Meituan public welfare merchant, the merchant automatically donates to the plan. Through the active participation of 1.92 million public welfare merchants and 1.578 million individual donors, 620 million consumers have contributed through daily spending, cumulatively raising over 520 million yuan in donations.
Technological Innovation: A Transparent Donation Tracking System
"Not knowing where donated money goes" is a common public concern about philanthropy. Meituan independently developed and patented a donation tracking system that matches each donation with a specific floor tile number. This allows every donor to pinpoint exactly where their tile is laid—down to which row and column on which kindergarten's playground. Each playground also features a signboard; scanning the QR code reveals all donors. Jin Jinping, Associate Professor at Peking University Law School and Director of the Peking University Nonprofit Organization Law Research Center, believes this "visibility" is not just about information disclosure. It grants a sense of participation and rebuilds trust mechanisms, moving public welfare away from suspicions of "black box operations" towards public trust based on digital rationality. This trust activates a self-accelerating "growth flywheel" for public welfare.
Model Innovation: From Building to Utilizing Playgrounds
Hardware is just the starting point. The project employs the integrated "playground + equipment + training + operations" approach to stimulate the endogenous development momentum of rural preschool education. The playground design has iterated to its third generation, developed by professional designers from a child-friendly perspective. It features eight functional zones: a 100-meter running track, a game maze, a cycling area, hopscotch, a traffic safety education area, a waste sorting and environmental education corner, and more. The traffic safety zone's design originated from a discovery during research in Guizhou—a teacher had hand-painted a zebra crossing on cement. "There are no traffic lights in the village, but these children will one day leave the mountains. We hope they won't be afraid when they see bustling traffic," said Gao Yucong, the project lead.
On the software side, the project collaborates with universities like Beijing Normal University, Shaanxi Normal University, Sichuan Normal University, and Guizhou Normal University to conduct teacher and principal training on sports games. It also dispatches experts as long-term mentors for some kindergartens. Over five-plus years, 106 training sessions have been held, covering over 6,000 preschool educators. An expert aptly described the playground as more like a "classroom without a roof."
The Power of Collaboration: A Bridge for Multi-Sector Partnership
The success of this public welfare endeavor is not the work of a single company. Gao Yucong repeatedly emphasized, "This project is the result of a collaborative effort involving government, businesses, academia, and society." Party committees and governments at various levels provided active guidance and support throughout the process. All playgrounds were selected through the local education systems, with many grassroots leaders personally inspecting sites beforehand, valuing the hard-won public welfare resources.
Within this collaborative network, Party committees and government departments at all levels have offered strong support. In provinces like Guizhou, Xinjiang, Qinghai, Gansu, and Inner Mongolia, local United Front Work Departments and Federations of Industry and Commerce have facilitated connections with education systems. As of May 2026, Guizhou alone had implemented 1,184 playgrounds.
Focusing on Key Assistance Counties
Guided by the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce's "Ten Thousand Enterprises Revitalize Ten Thousand Villages" initiative and supported by Federation organizations at all levels, Meituan gradually expanded the playground project to national key counties for rural revitalization assistance. Many of these 160 key counties are remote, with poor transportation and information access, making it difficult to directly reach rich public welfare resources. Using provincial, municipal, and county-level Federations as a bridge, the project established direct, point-to-point contact with key counties. It has now benefited all eligible kindergartens across these 160 counties, cumulatively building 901 playgrounds and benefiting nearly 120,000 rural children. This represents a significant move to root public welfare within the national rural revitalization strategy, an effective exploration of private enterprise participation in the "Ten Thousand Enterprises Revitalize Ten Thousand Villages" action, and a vivid practice of channeling private sector strength to where the nation needs it most.
Engaging in the "Private Enterprises Enter Border Regions" Initiative
The "Private Enterprises Enter Border Regions" special action focuses on forging a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation. Responding to this call, the project has prioritized allocating resources to border counties since this year. Border areas are crucial for stability, national defense, and external engagement. Building playgrounds in these counties addresses the educational concerns of cadres, masses, and their children who guard the frontiers. It also enriches kindergarten outdoor teaching with supporting equipment, fostering cultural identity and practical skills in young children. By the end of May 2026, the project had built 274 playgrounds across 59 border counties in eight provinces/regions: Guangxi, Yunnan, Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, Tibet, Heilongjiang, Jilin, and Liaoning.
A Special Initiative in Xinjiang
The year 2025 marked the 70th anniversary of the establishment of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. Responding to the call of "30 Years of Unwavering Commitment, Glorious Endeavors Embark Anew," the project launched a special playground construction initiative in Xinjiang, focusing on border counties. To date, 248 playgrounds have been built in Xinjiang. Distinctively, the playgrounds in Xinjiang's border counties feature a bright red "pomegranate seeds" pattern, subtly instilling the concept of forging a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation in the children's hearts.
Measurable Results: Third-Party Evaluation Confirms Real Change
Public welfare cannot rely solely on sentiment. Evaluation teams from Shaanxi Normal University and Beijing Normal University conducted third-party assessments of the project's impact using the internationally recognized Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) method. The Beijing Normal University team randomly grouped kindergartens in Guizhou and Hebei, involving over two thousand children. The assessment used academically validated "accelerometers" to precisely measure in-kindergarten physical activity duration.
Improved Physical Activity Behavior
The evaluation found that after playground construction, children's daily moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) time during kindergarten hours increased by an average of 12.44 minutes—an increment exceeding one-fifth of the daily recommended amount. Sedentary time during kindergarten decreased by 14.53 minutes, with the advantage further widening to 22.39 minutes during follow-up. The lead of the Beijing Normal University evaluation team explained that younger children are healthier when they are more active and less sedentary. Increased activity time greatly benefits children's motor skill development, height maintenance, and reduction in childhood obesity and myopia.
Enhanced Physical Fitness
Children in the intervention group showed clear advantages in multiple physical fitness indicators: the standing long jump performance for 6-year-olds improved by approximately 10 centimeters, and performance in grip strength, walking a balance beam, and continuous two-footed jumps was better than the control group. Many children met or even exceeded national standards.
Positive Cognitive and Social-Emotional Spillover Effects
The assessment also observed positive cognitive spillover effects: children in the high-activity participation group performed better in cognitive functions like fluid reasoning, information processing, and working memory. Regarding social-emotional aspects, children in the intervention group showed a significant reduction in problematic behaviors like hostile aggression, anxiety, and fear, with rule awareness improving in later assessments. The research team also cautioned that the long-term benefits for cognition and social-emotional development require longer-term tracking for validation.
Transformation in Teachers
The impact extends beyond children. 97.3% of kindergarten principals believe teacher enthusiasm has increased, and over 90% of teachers feel their professional competence has significantly improved. Teachers' roles are shifting from managers and caregivers to guides, observers, and supporters. In Baila Village, Tibet, teacher Lamu, born in the 1990s, admitted that before the playground was built, her most frequent phrase on the cement edge was, "Run slower, don't fall." After the playground was built, she gradually explored "what games can involve both younger and older children simultaneously." The children's changes delighted her: "Now they love playing together on the playground. Their physical fitness has improved, and so has their teamwork and verbal expression." From "don't run, don't jump" to "give it another try," rural young teachers have taken a solid step on their professional growth path.
The Essence of the Initiative: Truth, Goodness, and Beauty
When cold data translates to individual children, teachers, and families, the most moving aspects of this public welfare effort—its truth, goodness, and beauty—become clear.
Truth: Solidifying Every Cent and Promise
"Truth" is the foundation of this initiative. Donations are fully traceable and publicly verifiable; donors can see precisely where their tile is placed. Construction follows a fully modularized, standardized process, with unified specifications from design and laying to equipment installation. An education bureau official from Horqin Left Rear Banner, Inner Mongolia, explained that the acceptance process strictly implements traceability management, requiring confirmation signatures from the school and education department, with post-completion photo verification and archiving. "Every level checks, the whole process is traceable, and the construction quality is reliable and robust." The hollow interlocking floor tiles are anti-slip, water-permeable, and temperature-resistant, allowing water to drain quickly even in heavy rain. Children can return to the playground within half a day after rain. For Inner Mongolia's rainy and cold climate, the project specifically uses frost-resistant materials. After nearly two years of use since October 2024, the playground at Dayi Town Central Kindergarten in Juye County shows no cracking, deformation, or fading. Principal Zhou Hui praised the quality: "If an individual small panel loosens, it's easy to disassemble and replace, adding almost no maintenance cost for the kindergarten."
Goodness: The Warmth of Collective Effort
"Goodness" is embodied in every ordinary participant. Ma Jian from Fuhai County, Xinjiang, experienced a failed business venture at 18. Upon starting anew, he joined the public welfare effort without hesitation—his parents taught him from a young age: business requires integrity and helping the less fortunate within one's means. He has now contributed to building 38 playgrounds across Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan, and Gansu. Though he hasn't visited them, he can see each playground's image in the backend. At the Chengdu chain restaurant "Xiaoman Wusheng," all 30+ employees are hearing-impaired. When the owner proposed joining the donation plan, everyone discussed it in sign language and nodded silently. All six outlets joined and have since contributed to building 15 playgrounds. Employee Wang Yue signed, "I was also a left-behind child. I know what it feels like to be helped, and I want to help others too."
Bai Xianyin, a homestay owner in Xuzhou, found solace during the pandemic lockdowns, when his five stores were closed and his accounts were nearly depleted, by locating on a map the playgrounds he had helped fund. "When I found them, I felt at peace. I still contributed something to society." Later, he received hand-drawn paintings from children in Guizhou depicting them running on the playground. He showed the paintings to his daughter, who made a copy to hang at home. Behind an order donating a few cents is an ordinary businessperson; at the other end of the playground is a child experiencing a safe place to run for the first time. They are strangers, yet connected through a quietly operating digital mechanism linking city and countryside.
Beauty: From Shyness to Confident Blooming
"Beauty" is the sight of children's lives being illuminated. In Dayi Town, a middle-class child, introverted and physically weak, used to hide in a corner, afraid of falling. The soft, anti-slip interlocking floor made "falling not hurt," and the teacher, following a long-term lesson plan, guided him through low-intensity challenge games. After persisting for over two months, his physical fitness improved noticeably, and he grew taller. Now, when the outdoor activity whistle blows, he rushes to join relay races, actively invites friends to form climbing teams, and has become cheerful and smiling. In Tongren, Guizhou, the frequently ill Zhu child gradually pushed his limits, growing into a jump game leader, confidently guiding other children through each movement. At the foot of Mount Everest, Xiao Ji's smiles increased day by day, moving step by step from the classroom to the playground, playing together with other children.
The children's changes also quietly reshape families and villages. Many parents previously viewed outdoor play as "reckless fun" and kindergarten as mere "childcare." Now, seeing their children skillfully crawl over arches, vault over pommel horses, and cooperate confidently on a soccer field under the sun, long-held perceptions are shattered. Dayi Town has received several banners of appreciation spontaneously sent by parents in the past two years. Parents say, "Our child's physical health has improved at home, they get sick less, the whole child has become sunny, polite, and more willing to communicate." Xingfa Township Central Kindergarten in Guizhou transformed from experiencing "student attrition" to requiring a "lottery for enrollment," evolving into a county-level model kindergarten.
The playgrounds also open doors to a wider world for the children. After the playground was built at Atushi Songtake Town Kindergarten in Xinjiang in 2024, eight children traveled outside Xinjiang for the first time the following year, serving as ball children on the green field of the "Su Super League" in Kunshan, Jiangsu, cheered by the entire stadium. At that moment, the distance between these children and the outside world no longer seemed so vast.
Moving Forward: A Replicable Chinese Public Welfare Model
Over five-plus years of practice, the "Rural Children's Playground" project has gained broad recognition. It has received honors including the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce's "2025 Outstanding Case of Chinese Private Enterprise Social Responsibility" and was selected as a "Best Poverty Reduction Case" in the 6th Global Poverty Reduction Case Collection Activity jointly organized by the China International Poverty Reduction Center and other institutions. Academia has also given it high praise.
Jin Jinping stated that the core breakthrough of the Meituan Rural Children's Playground lies in its systematic "seeing" of the obscured challenges in rural preschool education—not just seeing the damaged grounds but the lack of guaranteed play for children; not just seeing the scarcity of equipment but the professional development struggles of teachers. The project's transparent practices move public welfare away from suspicions of "black box operations" towards public trust based on digital rationality.
Jia Xijin, Associate Professor at Tsinghua University's School of Public Policy and Management and Deputy Dean of the Tsinghua University Philanthropy Research Institute, noted: "Starting from the small entry point of 'the ability to play,' it guides the healthy development of children's personalities, exploring a scalable public welfare innovation for the quality development of rural preschool education."
Hu Xiaojun, Executive Dean of the Guangzhou Social Organization Research Institute, said: "This project has transformed from a traditional, unidirectional corporate philanthropy to a multi-party co-construction project model, promoting interaction and connection between rural and urban areas, different organizations, and individuals, generating greater comprehensive effects."
From the perspective of the Juye County Education and Sports Bureau, the "enterprise + public welfare organization + local government" tripartite cooperation model brought by these rainbow playgrounds has accumulated valuable, replicable experience for leveraging social forces to promote the accessibility and quality improvement of preschool education. The project adheres to a demand-oriented, targeted assistance approach, prioritizing help for kindergartens with weak foundations. It upholds the concept of long-term utilization, providing ongoing guidance on facility maintenance and training after construction to extend the usage cycle and ensure long-term benefits for children.
Standing at a new historical starting point, the Meituan Rural Children's Playground Public Welfare Plan will continue to align with national strategies for rural revitalization, building a strong education system, high-quality population development, and a Healthy China. In terms of content, it aims to upgrade playgrounds from mere "sports venues" to "child-friendly outdoor spaces" integrating cognitive, emotional, and social development, tilting resources towards more underdeveloped regions. In education, it strives to create a "family-school-community" tripartite collaborative education ecosystem. In its operational ecology, it seeks to evolve the participation model from "channeling goodwill" to "building value consensus." In terms of influence, it aims to refine local public welfare experience, construct an international narrative, and contribute social innovation solutions embodying Chinese wisdom to global early childhood development.
A seed of public welfare goodwill has taken root and sprouted in the vast countryside, blossoming into flowers as radiant as a rainbow. Starting from the fingertips of countless ordinary people, traversing mountains and rivers, it lands among the mountains of Yunnan, beside resettlement areas in Guangxi, next to wheat fields in Shandong, and on the grasslands of Inner Mongolia—transforming into places where children can run freely. It is not merely the completion of a playground; it is a gentle relay race about "seeing" and "trust." And in this space of their own, the children see a sky that stretches much farther.
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