[Photo provided to China Daily]

"I have visited many traditional cities in Europe, like Venice. The successful ones have one feature in common: they do not focus on presenting only the old features of the houses and villages. They also follow modern trends and add innovative elements into their towns."

If traditional villages in Jinhua can also find the perfect combination of old and new elements, they will also become successful models, she says.

Jinhua is the first city in the country to employ an adoption program to protect historic houses.

"We lease the houses out to people who have both money and the desire to own historic houses. They are responsible for protecting the houses, but any construction should be approved by experts," Xu says.

The program has stimulated people's enthusiasm in protecting traditional villages, he says.

"The 1,700-year-old Guzicheng village was saved by this program."

Jeremy Robinett, assistant professor at Western Illinois University and a member of the program, says the adoption program may be a tipping point in Jinhua's efforts in protecting traditional villages.

"There are successful examples in the world and they are very well developed.

Robinett, a professor in tourism studies, says he will invite more experts in this field to discuss the promotion of traditional villages in terms of sustainable development and environmental protection.

During his 21 days in Jinhua, Robinett and seven other members finished a research report on developing tourism for traditional villages in Jinhua. The report suggests a combination of sustainable tourism, heritage protection, culture and environmental protection.

Apart from the report, the participants designed an English-language website for the traditional villages, a tourism guidebook, a magazine and a map. The results will be presented online to attract the next group of foreigners to Jinhua. It will start its stint on Oct 12.