ZHENGZHOU－Zhang Xingli, a 60-year-old villager, sat on a stone in front of his house and struck a pose as painters quickly sketched him and his traditional house.

At his age, Zhang never thought he could earn money working as a model in Sanhe, a poverty-stricken mountain village in Songxian county, Henan province.

The village welcomes tourists who come to draw landscapes and recreate the beauty of its traditional houses. Villagers were recently preparing for the upcoming travel season and building an exhibition hall, a symbol of Sanhe's rapid development.

Tucked away in the depths of Funiu Mountain, the village was once mired in poverty and the surrounding rolling hills and deep gorges made it difficult to access. Most of the land was not fertile and there was no mineral wealth under the ground. In 2014, one-third of the 415 village households lived in poverty.

"Living near bare mountainsides, villagers were scared of drought and flood. After a heavy rain, all the crops would be destroyed," said Wu Songsheng, Party secretary of the village.

In 2016, changes began when Feng Yake returned to the village from Zhengzhou, the provincial capital. A college-trained artist, the 33-year-old had run an art school in Zhengzhou for years.

During that period, Feng had taken his students to many locations to draw landscapes, which made him realize the value of the rustic village.

"Mountains, groves by the river, cottages－this type of scenery was exactly what schools and art studios needed for their students," Feng said.

In 2015, he raised 1.5 million yuan ($229,250) and went back to his hometown.

Feng convinced his parents to demolish their house and build the first agritainment resort in the village to accommodate students who want to paint and draw landscapes.

Six months after the resort opened in 2016, Feng and his family had earned 200,000 yuan. The village received a total of 2,000 tourists the same year.

Feng's success inspired other villagers. At the end of 2016, Wu organized 11 meetings in two months to encourage villagers to build and run homestays.

In a short time, the village was redesigned and rebuilt. Old houses and a bean curd workshop were repaired. The walls were painted white, to contrast with the gray roof tiles, and a pavilion was built. The village signed contracts with more than 70 art studios to receive artists and students.

In 2018, the village was lifted out of poverty. Over the past two years, 25 agritainment resorts have been built in the village, receiving more than 30,000 tourists and generating an annual income of over 4 million yuan.

The influx of tourists has brought more job opportunities to Sanhe villagers, and many young people have returned to start businesses.

Gao Biao, 31, organizes field training and summer camps in the city. In the summer of last year, Gao's camps hosted more than 10,000 people. "Catching fish in the river or playing with mud, these activities have become children's favorite in the summer camps," Gao said.

Xinhua