Tukou village in Daishan county, Zhoushan, East China's Zhejiang province, is recognized as a National Civilized Village. [Photo/zj.zjol.com.cn]

Tukou village in Daishan county, Zhoushan, East China's Zhejiang province, was recently recognized as a National Civilized Village, local media reported on Dec 15.

"Tukou has more than 10 homestays and business has been relatively good," said Zhuang Rongbo, Party secretary of Tukou village.

Zhuang added that Tukou has been transformed from a Hollow Village, or a village left behind by rural migrant workers working in cities, to a "celebrity village".

"Quite daytime and dark nighttime" used to be a self-deprecating description of Tukou's desolation and backwardness.

Tukou preserves the most original appearance and atmosphere of a fishing village and started developing tourism industry in 2012, according to Zhuang.

Centered on the Shangchuantiao area, Tukou has established eco-friendly restaurants, self-service supermarkets, sightseeing trains, and cultural centers.

"I used to make a living by planting peanuts," said Zhang Xiaomao, a Tukou villager.

"After developing the Shangchuantiao area, my vacant rooms have become part of my income source as I rent them out to homestay runners."

Mao Shuiding, former Party secretary of Tukou, revealed that the village can rake in another 500,000 yuan ($77,000) per year by renting out land and villagers' rooms. In 2019, the village's collective economic income totaled 5.46 million yuan.

During the May Day holiday of this year, more than 40,000 tourists took a cruise boat and sightseeing train in Tukou village.

To win the National Civilized Village title, Tukou has also further improved its natural environment by afforesting more than 7,000 square meters of land, building 1,100 meters of greenway along the river, renovating roads, and installing streetlights.