In a quiet corner of Shangzhou Village, an old ancestral home has found a new purpose. The blue tiles and red brick walls remain, but the smell of coffee now drifts through the courtyard. The person behind the counter is Zhao Liting, a former baker who returned to her hometown in Zhuhai's Doumen District in 2022. With no renovation experience, no professional team, and limited funds, she redesigned and repaired the house herself. By 2025, the once-idle property had become a calling card for the village.
Her story is small, but it speaks to a much larger question: how does China's rural revitalization drive reach the "last mile"? As the 9th Chinese Farmers' Harvest Festival approaches, the macroeconomic picture is encouraging. In the first half of 2026, rural residents' per capita disposable income reached 12,699 yuan, a real increase of 5.5 percent—2.1 percentage points faster than urban residents. Summer grain output exceeded 300 billion jin for the first time, and early rice production has remained above 56 billion jin for six consecutive years. Yet the harder task is to translate these gains into stronger incomes and brand value for more villages.
Doumen District offers an instructive case. The district has long supported young people who want to return home and start businesses, providing training, subsidies, and simplified procedures. Since 2023, Doumen Town alone has attracted nearly 200 returning rural youth. Their ventures range from intangible cultural heritage and homestays to restaurants and cultural design, creating more than 500 jobs.
Yu Lyucheng's story is equally telling. After years in finance, he gave up a high salary to return home. Beside a century-old watchtower, he opened Masheng Farmhouse Restaurant. His guiding principle is simple: chicken should taste like chicken. He promotes Doumen's intangible cultural heritage foods and has creatively launched a "Shangzhou half-day tour" that combines food, entertainment, and leisure. These returning young people are redefining the relationship between career and life, and their passion and curiosity have become a core driving force behind rural revitalization.
On September 23, Doumen launched the "Tour Doumen with Rural Curators" event and appointed its first batch of rural curators. The same day, Zhuhai's 2026 Chinese Farmers' Harvest Festival opened in Caolang Village, Jing'an Town, under the theme "Harvest opens a new chapter, hard work promotes revitalization." The message is clear: rural revitalization is moving from individual effort to institutionalized, brand-driven collective development. Rural curators are not merely business operators. They are brand stewards, storytellers, and bridges between city and countryside.
For Hong Kong, this shift presents a timely opportunity. The 15th Five-Year Plan has, for the first time, a dedicated section on youth development. It calls on young people to take the lead in fields such as scientific and technological innovation and rural revitalization. Hong Kong's youth possess international vision, brand awareness, professional skills, and cross-cultural communication—precisely the resources that rural China needs most as it moves from "products" to "brands." The returning youth of Doumen have shown that one young person with professional skills and a love for home can bring a sleeping old house back to life. Hong Kong's young people can find their own stage in the towns of the Greater Bay Area.
Many are interested but cannot immediately leave full-time jobs or studies. A "weekend entrepreneurship circle" could help. The idea is straightforward: encourage Hong Kong youth to spend weekends in GBA towns, joining short residencies, rural research, or cultural workshops. Through these gradual experiences, they can develop real understanding and test business ideas. A brand designer, for example, could design packaging for a village brand on weekends. This lowers the cost of trial and error while bringing real professional value to the countryside.
Rural revitalization is not a slogan. It is a road built by countless returning young people, step by step. Doumen is showing that the future of the countryside belongs to those willing to return. Hong Kong's youth have an international vision; GBA towns have space and real needs. What is needed is not more slogans but more practical institutional channels and flexible ways to participate. The last mile of rural revitalization is not a distance to be covered alone. It is a bridge waiting to be built—and Hong Kong's young people are well placed to build it.
The authors, Winnie Lin and Pagiel He, are cultural and tourism promotion ambassadors of Doumen District.
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