Feature: How World Heritage bid breathes new life into a Chinese village

NANCHANG, Aug. 31 (Xinhua) -- On a sultry afternoon, an elderly man sat on the doorstep of his home in Dongbu Village, a riverside settlement about 40 kilometers from Jingdezhen, idly fanning himself in the shade when a visiting official stopped to ask him a question.

"Do you know what big thing your village is doing these days?"

Without a word, he turned the fan in his hand. Printed across its face was a single line: "Supporting the World Heritage bid."

"That's it," he said, "We're applying for World Heritage status."

Everyone laughed. For Han Xiaoshan, deputy director of the World Heritage application office in Fuliang County, where the village sits, the moment was proof that years of knocking on doors had finally sunk in.

"It showed our work hadn't been for nothing," she said. "People here know now that this is everyone's business, not just ours."

It had taken years to get there -- years of persuading villagers to look again at the street, houses and riverfront they had grown up with, and to see not just a familiar home, but a piece of porcelain history worth preserving.

On July 25, the Jingdezhen Handicraft Porcelain Industry Sites were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List, becoming China's 61st World Heritage site. Dongbu was among the newly listed heritage components.

For centuries, kaolin, or China clay, and other porcelain-making materials were brought down from the surrounding hills to Dongbu and shipped along the Donghe River to Jingdezhen's kilns. Goods purchased in the porcelain-making city traveled back along the same route.

With an ancient trade route also running through the village, Dongbu became a busy hub for trade and transshipment by land and water. Its old wharf, commercial street and waterways still trace the transport network that once helped supply Jingdezhen's porcelain industry.

For generations of villagers, however, those remains were simply part of everyday life.

Wu Jinghua, a former village official who has lived in Dongbu for more than 70 years, remembers efforts to protect the old street and wharf beginning around 2000. Systematic restoration gathered pace from 2015 as the World Heritage application moved forward.

Dongbu was traditionally an agricultural village. Tourism developed gradually, but few visitors came at first.

As heritage protection intensified, it began to affect residents more directly. Concrete covering the old stone street had to be removed, old houses faced restrictions on rebuilding and renovation, and makeshift structures and accumulated clutter had to be cleared.

For some villagers, the changes initially meant inconvenience rather than opportunity.

"At first, many villagers did not understand," Wu said. "Old houses were too dilapidated to be worth preserving."

For Han, who joined the application effort in 2022, changing that perception became part of the work.

She and her colleagues went door to door, explaining Dongbu's history and why the old streets and wharf outside villagers' homes mattered beyond the village itself.

Gradually, resistance eased. As the village became cleaner and its historic buildings were repaired, Han said, residents developed a stronger sense of belonging and pride.

The restoration itself followed a principle of "minimum intervention."

Traditional materials and techniques were used to repair old buildings, the wharf and the stone-paved street, with colors and textures kept as close as possible to the originals.

When workers moved utility lines underground, they marked each stone slab before lifting it. Once the work was complete, workers returned the slabs one by one to their original positions. Modern shop windows were replaced with wooden latticework to better match the historic streetscape.

At the same time, the village upgraded water and drainage systems and improved other basic infrastructure.

The changes also created new opportunities for residents.

More than 80 villagers found work during the restoration projects. Others opened homestays, restaurants and teahouses or began selling local produce to visitors.

Under a large banyan tree by the Donghe River, one elderly resident now sells mung bean soup and rice jelly, often going through two buckets a day.

Dongbu has also begun hosting study tours and cultural tourism programs centered on its role in Jingdezhen's porcelain history.

The village now receives at least 190,000 visitors a year, according to Wu. More visitors mean more customers for local food, accommodation and produce, giving villagers additional ways to earn a living beyond farming.

But another change is harder to measure.

The old houses that some villagers once saw mainly as dilapidated structures have increasingly become a source of pride. A history long taken for granted has become more closely tied to how residents see their home.

"This village isn't just our own place anymore," Wu said. "It now has international influence."

For Dongbu, World Heritage status has changed not only how its old street and wharf are protected, but also how residents understand their value.

"We all have the same hope now: to protect our ancient street and wharf well, so that our culture can be passed down for generations," said Wu.