Meidong Village in Meikeng Town, Xinfeng County, is transforming its high-quality geothermal hot spring resources into a thriving new industry. Previously, the village faced challenges despite its natural assets, with 84 hot spring businesses operating in a fragmented manner, lacking professional management and innovation, and suffering from weak infrastructure and a monotonous industrial structure.
Today, the village presents a different picture. Roads have been widened and paved, overhead cables have been buried underground, and formerly idle woodlands are now lush with saplings. The hot spring guesthouses are bustling with visitors. As a model village under the "High-Quality Development Project for Counties, Towns, and Villages," Meidong is achieving breakthroughs in three key areas: infrastructure improvement, industrial clustering, and cultural tourism integration, charting a unique path for rural revitalization.
Strengthening infrastructure has been crucial for addressing development shortcomings. Comprehensive planning by expert teams has led to the addition of new facilities such as parking lots, a stargazing campsite, and waterfront platforms. These systemic improvements are designed to attract and retain tourists. The village has coordinated the development of its characteristic hot spring industry with enhancements to the living environment, ecological beauty, and overall village appearance. Key projects include building a waterfront landscape belt along the Meikeng River, featuring the stargazing campsite, scenic river sections, and check dams, which activate the river's ecological value and unlock its tourism potential.
Currently, projects like the Agricultural Products Exhibition Center and a village market are accelerating along the waterfront. Furthermore, a pipeline network to supply hot spring water to all 84 businesses is steadily progressing, making the vision of "hot springs for every household" a near reality. This allows villagers to benefit directly from the industry's growth and provides solid hardware support for high-quality development.
To overcome the bottleneck of fragmented operations, Meidong Village has focused on a "hot springs plus" core strategy. By emphasizing brand leadership and resource integration, it is shifting the industry from offering单一 services to a diversified, integrated model, creating an intensive, high-quality hot spring wellness cluster. Leveraging the brand effect of the nationally 3A-rated Xinfeng Jiangyuan Hot Spring Resort, the village has consolidated resources from leading establishments, including a five-star guesthouse and a silver-level rural hotel, to drive the quality upgrade of all 84 hot spring businesses. This has fostered an industrial pattern where major players lead and smaller operators collaborate, forming a cluster that integrates tourism, vacationing, and wellness.
Simultaneously, initiatives like the "Beautiful Courtyards" project promote the "courtyard plus hot spring guesthouse" model, enriching the cultural tourism offerings and enhancing the long-term vitality and competitiveness of the hot spring economy. The clustering effect is significant: the hot spring industry now attracts over 300,000 tourists annually and directly or indirectly creates employment for more than 600 people, transforming the sector from isolated efforts into collaborative success and injecting sustained economic vitality into rural revitalization.
The integration of culture and tourism is key to upgrading the hot spring industry. Utilizing its unique resources, Meikeng Town has deepened the connection between the geothermal hot spring industry and cultural activities, ensuring the hot springs offer not just physical warmth but also cultural depth. This facilitates a shift from sightseeing consumption to experiential consumption. Capitalizing on the visitor draw from leading hot spring enterprises, the town organized a year-end event in Meidong Village at the end of 2025. The event combined hot spring experiences with intangible cultural heritage exhibitions and local markets, precisely attracting the target consumer base. It drew over 50,000 visitors and stimulated more than 800,000 yuan in hot spring and related consumption, broadening sales channels for local agricultural products and strengthening the village's collective economy.
Through infrastructure upgrades, industrial clustering, and the fusion of hot springs with culture and tourism, Meidong Village has successfully established the hot spring industry as a pillar of rural revitalization. The village's hot spring businesses have moved from fragmentation to collaboration, its appearance has transformed from weak to livable and touristic, and the lives of its residents are increasingly prosperous, showcasing a vivid example of high-quality rural development.
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