A press conference on homestay service standards was held in Lishui in East China's Zhejiang province on Dec 10.

Homestays are one of the best choices for accommodation when visiting Lishui, as they allow tourists to really get close to the local lifestyle and culture.

In recent years, Lishui has been giving full play to its rural scenery and local cultural resources, developing various functions including cultivation of ecological leisure agriculture.

The Lishui homestay service standards have eight aspects such as grade division, evaluation request and service quality and provision of comprehensive certification for the homestays' development.

Among the homestay standards an emergency rescue system will be established requiring a limitation of only five-minutes for emergency rescue response. The standard matches that of the European Union.

Meanwhile, to establish a comprehensive star evaluation system, 120 specific indicators in various aspects were proposed. According to the evaluation results, homestays in Lishui will be divided into three levels valid for three years.

Statistics show that there are more than 4,300 rural homestays in Lishui at present, receiving a total of 34.51 million tourists and generating 4.1 billion yuan ($584.84 million) of revenue each year.