KUNMING, Jan. 26 (Xinhua) -- Picture a hilltop village sitting above rolling clouds. It is hemmed in on all sides by vast swathes of water-submerged terraced fields that cascade down steep slopes and shimmer with dazzling colors at sunrise and sunset.
Like something out of a fairy tale, Azheke Village in southwest China's Yunnan Province is a backpackers' paradise. One can rub shoulders with local farmers when trekking through the millennium-old Hani Rice Terraces, a UNESCO-listed world heritage site, or enjoy Zen-like peace while staying in a traditional thatched village house.
Tourism has become a popular business for Azheke's nearly 500 villagers, most of whom are of the Hani ethnic minority. The influx of visitors is helping the villagers shake off poverty and, surprisingly, preserve their traditional ethnic culture at the same time.
On Tuesday, the villagers from 65 households shared a dividend of 112,300 yuan (16,229 U.S. dollars) from the revenue of the village's tourism development collective in the second half of 2019.
It was the third time that the villagers received dividends from the village collective since it was founded in 2018. The dividends were a reward for their efforts in preserving the rice terraces and mushroom-shaped traditional dwellings, the village's main tourist draws.
"I never expected to earn so much money from tourism," said Lu Aiwen, who has received more than 5,000 yuan in dividends from the collective.
Lu, a mother of two, said her family could barely make ends meet before 2018 with the rice she grew and the money her husband earned from odd jobs in outside cities.
"This year I can afford to buy new clothes for my kids. Our life is better off now with the dividends and the income I made from a part-time job at the village's tourist center," Lu said. "Besides, I have time to look after my kids and work on my terraced fields."
She added that her family had renovated their traditional "mushroom" house with funds from the local government.
Wang Ranxuan, Azheke's village chief, said tourism has brought luster back to the ancient village, thanks to a tourism development plan that "strikes a fine balance between commercialization and preservation of traditional culture."
According to Wang, the local government formulated the plan in 2018 in cooperation with Sun Yat-sen University to develop Azheke's tourism sector, as many young villagers were then departing for high-paying jobs in cities, leaving their village houses unattended and rice terraces untilled.
Later that year, the village collective was established and all villagers were turned into its shareholders. Besides charging entrance fees, the collective makes a profit by providing a series of tourist activities such as fish catching and trekking tours, with the villagers serving as tour guides.
Wang said more than 20,000 tourists visited Azheke in 2019, a huge increase from the previous year. A growing number of villagers have returned from the cities to cash in on the flourishing tourism scene, such as becoming tour guides or starting bed-and-breakfasts.
"Azheke's tourism development plan aims to bring economic benefits to the villagers while helping them maintain their traditional way of life," said Zhou Zongjun, a student volunteer sent by Sun Yat-sen University to monitor the plan's implementation. "It encourages the villagers to protect their rice terraces and traditional houses to get a larger share of the collective's tourism revenue."
To prevent over-tourism, the number of restaurants and guesthouses in the village are both capped at five, Zhou said.
"Azheke is really like a fairyland on earth, with its breathtaking natural scenery and distinctive 'mushroom' houses," said a tourist surnamed Liao from south China's Guangdong Province.
