Tengtou is a unique Chinese village with a population of just under 900, when last I checked. What makes this place special is what the small group of villagers accomplished for themselves. A number of years ago, they collectively decided to push a unique “tourist” agenda, branding Tengtou as a window into china’s rural village life. While much of the Chinese population was gearing towards a manufacturing and metropolis lifestyle, slowly eating away at the small villages that used to dominate the countryside, Tengtou tried to maintain the village as a shining example of what used to be.

They do this thru some cool interactive attractions and nature based programs aimed at natural sustainability. For example… in one part of the village they have a beautiful expansive greenhouse erected housing some rare plants and focusing on new hydroponic growing techniques. While on the other side of the village they had me monkeying around with hoists, buckets and a devise I can only describe as an enormous exercise bicycle contraption rigged to a rotating system of buckets. The area is meant to interactively show you how villagers in the past manually transported water using old methods. Definitely not the rice harvesting village life I would expect, but in Tengtou, it is a mixture of old and new.

On top of the sites, which are fun and educational, there are the villagers themselves. Smiles abound and you can really see a connection with the people to the village. Everywhere you see that people are proud of what they have accomplished, and they should be. Tengtou is an important

landmark in Ningbo, and a window into a fading chapter of Chinese life.

Text by Mathew AsiaEnglishOnline

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