The Homestay in Jinhua’s Historical Villages Project, organised by Jinhua Municipal People’s Government Foreign and Overseas-Chinese Affairs Office, began in 2015. Project sessions have already been held in five historical villages, with great success.
The project will select international applicants for a 15 day home-stay experience. During the stay, you will learn about Chinese traditional culture, witness the beauty of historical architecture and experience life with a Chinese family. You will have the chance to communicate with your contemporaries from all over the world. You can put your specialties into practice. For example you might contribute to maintaining a village’s local character and protecting its historical buildings. You can share your stories about Jinhua with the world, in photos or writing, so that others can know more about Jinhua. By spreading the story, the historical villages can preserve their culture and develop sustainable tourism, thus the ancient architecture and historical villages can be well protected.
During the 15 days, the project team will organise a series of activities, for example cultural lectures, folklore experiences and visiting local enterprises. We plan to recruit 40 overseas participants for each session.
The seven sessions to date have attracted over 300 overseas participants from 40 countries. They made an international fairy tale garden, village maps, studied ancient architecture, learnt local folk culture and interviewed villagers to discover ancient stories. They contributed to the protection and development of the ancient villages.
The aim of this project is to promote an understanding of the historical villages of Jinhua, Zhejiang Province, by direct experience of local culture. International participants will have the opportunity to live in a traditional village for three weeks. They will learn about traditional Chinese culture, historical architecture and folklore. Additionally, the project is the first stage in a plan to attract tourists from all over the world interested in travelling to historical villages, and to introduce Jinhua's villages to an international audience. Eventually, the villages will be transformed into international level centres for ecotourism and leisure holidays, while preserving original elements of local culture, and bringing international renown to Jinhua.
Photos and video will be taken of participants during some of the project activities. Applicants must agree to any such material being used, if required, to further the aims of the project.
It is strongly suggested that applicants conduct research on Jinhua Mountain and include their creative ideas and possible contribution in their application.
Online Application address: http://www.jinhua-homestay.com/en/appform.php
Participants should accomplish at least one of the tasks listed below, and also share your experiences on social media.
In the application, applicants should write an essay of at least 600 words detailing how they plan to contribute to the project and which tasks they would like to address.
Group aim: During the project, there will be several lectures on Jinhua Mountain culture, that will improve participants’ understanding of Jinhua Mountain culture. Participants of this task group are supposed to collect material about Jinhua Mountain culture and scenic route. After the cultural lectures, participants should organize the culture related documents in English, translate them into their native languages, and design a fun tour route for Jinhua Mountain.
Participants we hope to invite: Students majoring in related fields such as East Asia culture (Chinese culture), Chinese language, literature, or tourism.
Group aim: Come up with new ideas of products and their design that can represent Jinhua Mountain and be used, for example, as souvenirs (e.g. postcards, mugs, fridge magnets, T-shirts, etc.).
Participants we hope to invite: Students or groups majoring in related to product design fields.
Group aim: Write articles on the themes of “Jinhua Mountain in my eyes”, “Jinhua traditional culture in my eyes”, “Jinhua Homestay project in my eyes”, and publish them in newspapers, magazines, and social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube. Make promotional videos for the New Top 10 Tourist Attractions of Jinhua, and publish them on social media sites.
Participants we hope to invite: Students majoring in related fields such as literature or journalism.
Group aim: Present both the natural scenery and history of Jinhua Mountain tourism area and Jinhua traditional culture in paintings.
Participants we hope to invite: Students or groups majoring in related fields such as art or fine arts (painting).
Jinhua Municipal People’s Government Foreign Affairs Office will award you a Participant Certificate and an Ambassador of People–People Communication Certificate.
Person in charge: Xu Shufang.
Former sessions:
Please refer to the schedules of the project's previous sessions in Yuyuan and Siping 2015 how the project might be organized.