As the morning mist gradually disappears, the layers of rice terraces, rolling mountains, splashing river and Miao Village emerge and the day begins.
Located in Danjiang Town, Guizhou, Baiyan Village is surrounded by mountains and is famous for its well-preserved traditional Miao culture. Also known as the “Miao Village hidden in the terrace fields”, until recently Baiyan Village was unknown to the outside world, and villagers still lived a very simple life.
Now, with the advent of 5G, IoT, Cloud computing and big data, China Mobile is focusing on the construction of smart villages and economic transformation, with the aim of creating a more prosperous, sustainable and well-governed village.
In Baiyan Village, the China Mobile 5G base station is located on top of the mountain, opposite the terrace fields and wooden buildings. China Mobile started building 5G base stations and completing the optical fibre broadband coverage in 2021 to accelerate the digital transformation of Baiyan Village under the Digital Qianqun concept, and subsequently formulated a full digital management platform to drive the digitalization of Baiyan Village.
The manager of Leishan branch of China Mobile Guizhou explained that Baiyan Village is rich in tourism resources and the natural conditions for developing tea fields and other agricultural industries. China Mobile Guizhou is exploring the effective integration of information technology and rural development to help modernize the village
All rooms are reserved until the end of the month in a guesthouse at Baiyan Village. With quality ecological resources and digital village construction, the guesthouse business has started to prosper. “Reservations are usually made by phone in the past, but now more than 80% of the customers lock in bookings online. In addition, we often shoot and share some short videos to online platforms to increase our exposure,” the manager of a guesthouse at Baiyan Village said. “All our 29 rooms are connected to China Mobile’s high-speed broadband with good 5G signal. Guests are more willing to stay for a longer period now it has become more convenient for them.”
At the home of villager Li Guangkui, his grandson is watching HD TV programs with China Mobile’s set-top box. While the child’s parents are working in the city, he stays with Li, but they do video calls from time to time. Besides, Li’s store at the village has switched to accept digital payments a while ago.
China Mobile’s high-speed 5G network and broadband is penetrating rural areas and allowing villagers to bond better with their families and neighbors.
The “Digital Qian Village” concept also helps enhance digital literacy of the village, encouraging villagers to learn proactively.
Rural revitalization depends on the tourism industry, while agricultural industrial development depends on geographical characteristics. Forests, rice terraces and rivers converge in Baiyan Village, creating a natural charm that appeals to tourists worldwide.
China Mobile Guizhou integrates both agriculture and rural tourism to formulate a “5G+VR+agriculture+culture+tourism” framework for building beautiful villages, with aim of promoting traditional industries such as rice-fish farming and tea planting, as well as preserving the Miao customs in the Cloud.
Baiyan Village is near Leigongshan National Park, which is famous for its negative ion rich air to improve wellbeing and fitness. To show off the area’s good air quality, China Mobile Guizhou installed a negative oxygen ion monitoring device to observe the oxygen content in real time, to attract more environmental tourism.
China Mobile Guizhou has also created a must-go destination themed “Beautiful Village”, which has been promoted as a popular place for tourists through word of mouth. With the guidance from staff, tourists can own an exclusive video just by waving, making a good memory of their trips to Baiyan.
In addition to empowering the integrated development of rural farming and tourism, China Mobile Guizhou is also proactively expanding its ideas for upgrading the transformation of traditional industries, building an e-commerce platform for agricultural products to revitalize rural industrial resources.
Consumers can make their purchase and eat with confidence with the new “Qianyi Manor” platform to monitor the planting and growing environment of agricultural produce in real time.
Apart from direct purchase of the agricultural products, the “Qianyi Manor” platform allows consumers to “adopt” agricultural products and check their progress in real time. They can head to the farm to pick up the produce once the crops mature.
The rice flower fragrance implies a good harvest. Villagers are excited to see the well-bred fish and the adoption concept of “Qianyi Manor”.
“We lived tough lives going around the town and hawking our products. Income was unstable back then. However, with online sales channels and China Mobile’s livestreaming helping farmers, I can sell my fish in the comfort of my home. Besides, since our village was introduced as one of the recommended go-to areas on social media, my income has increased by over CNY20,000 this year,” one of the villagers in Baiyan Village said.
The advent of mobile digitalization makes the village more vibrant and contemporary. Baiyan Village even acquired the honorary title of “Top 20 of China Mobile’s Best Digitalized Village” in 2021.
In Leishan, China Mobile Guizhou has set up some spots for demonstrating the construction of digital villages in traditional communities in Jiaomeng, Nanmeng and Longtang. It formulates the integrated management model of “digital village management” center+ “digital Qianqun” platform+ “Qianyi Manor” platform for enhancing the village’s ability to manage and improve the living environment, as well as promoting the tourism industry.
Whether it is transforming from all-round security monitoring to digitalized village management or from village infrastructure to the dynamic development of industry, China Mobile is building over 8,000 digitalized villages across the province, extensively promoting the digitalization of village infrastructures, systematic platforms and building user terminals. Ultimately, it aims to help village committees perform services in various application scenarios, including proper management of villages and residents, enhancement of community security, improvement of living environment, ecosystem protection and some early warnings. In addition, it can develop innovative agricultural sales framework, for example livestreaming e-commerce and smart adoption, to promote agricultural products to other cities.
Moving forward, China Mobile will apply its long-standing expertise in digitalization to accelerate the construction of more digital villages according to local conditions, with the aim of building a prosperous future for the rural villages.
