Xian's house is clean and bright, with a spacious guest room, two bedrooms with four beds in them, a bathroom and an entertainment room for playing mahjong. According to Xian, all the farmhouse hotels have undergone a sanitary inspection and meet those standards.

"You won't believe that a film celebrity like Li Yapeng once stayed at my hotel," said Xian with excitement and pride.

The neighboring Pixiliang Village, on the other hand, still looks like a construction site. Bulldozers move back and forth; a few new houses are standing but others have not yet taken shape.

Not far from the site, a ski slope is being built on one side of the Southern Mountain. According to township official Chen Kuan, the local Xinjiang Hongjing Group Co. Ltd., a telecommunications company, has invested in developing a ski resort where Pingxiliang Village used to be located. So the company has to relocate the villagers near the foot of the mountain and help them rebuild their houses. When these new houses are finished, they also will be used to operate a hotel business.

In recent years, Shuixigou Township has introduced 29 enterprises and a total investment of 1.8 billion yuan to help develop the local economy, focusing on real estate and tourism.

It seems that the efforts have paid off. In 2005, the per capita net income of the township residents was 4,317 yuan, with 47.7 percent coming from tourism.

Though there are no statistics yet on how much of a contribution this rural tourism makes to the autonomous region's overall tourism revenue, according to Naiyimu Yasen, the head of the Xinjiang Tourism Administration, "Countryside tourism is gaining momentum and will flourish in five years."

Dealing with problems

While the government has helped to increase farmers' income and improve their livelihood through various channels, including tourism, the current situation for developing rural tourism does have some defects, according to Professor Chen Chuangang with the Center for Recreation and Tourism Research of Peking University.

The most universal problem, said Chen, is duplication. Sometimes investment decisions are made blindly due to a lack of proper macro-adjustment and guidance from the government. Investors also fail to do sufficient market research and planning before they jump into the heated tourism business.

Chen pointed out that rural tourism remains at the level of providing lodging and food, not going deeply enough into exploring real folk customs. As a result, rural tourism activities follow the same pattern: eat home-style food, drink tea, play mahjong and sing karaoke.

Another problem is of even more concern, said Chen. Countryside tourism in some places destroys the natural rural landscape. Ignoring the basic considerations of simplicity, naturalism and harmony, flashy and luxurious tourist facilities are being put up, which by no means fits into the countryside scene.

Rural tourism is viewed as important because it is considered to be one of the most efficient ways to improve the lives of the rural population. Without resolving the problems that occur in the process of developing countryside tourism, however, there will be no further sustainable development, Chen said.

These problems so far might be denied or overlooked by local governments, but experts have advice on developing healthy and sustainable rural tourism, the most important suggestion being to develop an integrated plan before diving into the booming business.