Xidi village in Qianxian county in the eastern part of Anhui province, has a continuous history extending back a thousand years.

At the first signs of success, villagers began cleaning up the streets, planting more trees, and creating lodging houses. By 1993, admission to the shrines was increased to eight yuan. That was the year income from tourism surpassed farming as the local economic mainstay.

More and more of the local populace entered the tourist trade - so that today, tourism provides 70 percent of the employment to villagers.