Border areas in Guangxi reap benefits from tourism

Tourism has played an important role in improving people's livelihood in the poverty-stricken areas adjoining Vietnam in Southwest China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.

Thanks to rural tourism, dramatic changes have happened to Banxiao village, home to over 400 people of Zhuang ethic group, in Pingxiang city, around 25 kilometers away from the China-Vietnam border.

"Our village was underdeveloped 20 years ago. Villagers lived in shabby houses and walked on dirt roads. Pig and cattle farms were stinky. Planting sugarcane and doing odd jobs were the two major sources of income," said Zhang Zishang, deputy director of the village committee.

"But now there are opportunities to develop rural tourism. There's a spring where water temperature remains constant at around 22 C and the village is famous for its Zhuang ethnic culture," Zhang told.