Rare dark-sky zone in east China drives rural tourism

HANGZHOU, Sept. 21 (Xinhua) -- Fang Shanfei never thought his village was special, nor did he understand terms like the Bortle scale. But things changed when strangers arrived, eager to gaze at the stars he had seen all his life.

Running the only rural homestay in Gaotiankeng Village, in east China's Zhejiang Province, Fang was the first to spot the drift in 2017, when stargazing enthusiasts scoured the mountains for a dark-sky site and eyed on his village.

Elsewhere, especially in the brilliant glow of the Yangtze River Delta, the night is awash with light, serving as a proxy for electricity use and economic vitality in China's economic and technology powerhouse.

But in the largely mountainous province, farmers in remote areas relied mainly on selling homegrown produce and rural specialties such as raw tea leaves, with limited incomes and peaceful but still dark nights.

In Fang's village, however, the darkness reveals something even rarer: a sky brimming with stars, far from urban luminescence.

Nestled in eastern Zhejiang's mountains at an altitude of 680 meters, with forest coverage above 85 percent, Gaotiankeng is shielded from light pollution by its natural surroundings.

In 2024, it was officially added to the world list of dark sky protected areas, marked by a stone stele at the village entrance. A year later, the Beijing Planetarium set up a permanent astronomical observation site there, the first in the Yangtze River Delta to join the top institution's official observation system.

Professionals classify Gaotiankeng as a Class 2 dark-sky zone with a Bortle scale rating of two to three, marking a rare astronomical resource unmatched across the entire delta region.

Fang's homestay now runs at nearly full occupancy, with all eight dining tables regularly filled during meals. Guests range from study-tour groups from neighboring Shanghai and road trip travelers from Zhejiang's capital Hangzhou, to astronomy enthusiasts hauling telescopes from across the country.

Before dark-sky tourism took off, Gaotiankeng was a hollowed-out mountain village. Young people migrated to cities for work, leaving farmland abandoned.

Today, villagers are returning. Four other villager-operated homestays are in business, each generating annual turnover exceeding 100,000 yuan (about 14,820 U.S. dollars).

A local company has acquired and renovated 45 old, empty house buildings, preserving their original architecture. Of these, 16 were converted to high-end star-viewing homestays, while the rest transformed into a star-themed library, a teahouse, a restaurant and an art gallery, adding new vigor to the village's business.

The benefits extend beyond tourism. Vacant houses in the village attract rental inquiries, abandoned farmland is reclaimed and leased, and local specialties such as dried bamboo shoots become popular in the market.

The Hangzhou Astronomical Society has also set up a permanent meteor-monitoring station there. On the mountaintop, an astronomy museum, equipped with professional instruments and a dome theater, stands alongside a dedicated stargazing camping base.

Dou Chuang, the museum's curator, leads astronomical study tours. During the Perseid meteor shower earlier this year, Dou delivered on-site observation sessions for student groups, showing visitors why preserving the dark sky matters.

Dark-sky tourism has driven coordinated development across the township of Changhong, which administers Gaotiankeng. Residents comply with light-pollution controls, and dark-sky protection rules have been embedded in village regulations.

In 2025, Changhong Township recorded more than 120,000 tourist visits and 8 million yuan in tourism revenue, up 28.5 percent year on year. Homestay occupancy reached 98 percent during holidays. Six villages achieved collective operating income above 500,000 yuan, and two surpassed 1 million yuan.

This year, Fang renovated the second floor of his homestay into three guest rooms with private bathrooms and star-gazing skylights, all ideas from guests expecting to watch meteor showers from bed.

As dusk fell, after checking room reservations and informing guests about the weather, Fang lounges back into his old bamboo chair in the courtyard, while soft breeze stirring under the starry night.