Over the past two decades, Zhuge village in Lanxi, a county-level city in Jinhua, East China's Zhejiang province, has been making efforts to protect its traditional buildings dating back to the Ming and Qing dynasties (1368-1911).
The village, which boasts more than 200 such buildings, has implemented a series of measures, including renovating the buildings, upgrading roads, and transferring land rights to improve the living environment.
The village also established a tourism development company in 2002 to develop its tourism industry, which in turn will aid in the protection of its cultural relics.
The village, which is home to one of the largest groups of descendants of Zhuge Liang (181-234), a prominent statesman, military strategist, and literati in the Three Kingdoms period (220-280), has been tapping into its cultural resources to boost tourism.
Authorities encourage residents to run homestays, cafes, tea houses and book stores as well as develop Zhuge-themed tourism products such as fans and locks to provide jobs, with the goal of employing more than 400 residents and generating an annual tourism revenue of 160 million yuan ($22.29 million).
Residents are eligible to receive social insurance, medical insurance, personal accident insurance and scholarships, while seniors aged 60 or over are eligible to receive a living allowance every month.
