Yucun, a "hidden treasure village" nestled in Anji, Zhejiang, is not only a favored weekend retreat for youth from Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanghai but also one of the first "Best Tourism Villages" announced by the UN Tourism. Here, visitors can enjoy coffee, stroll through bamboo gardens, and relish rural life. Ronan, a French student from Beijing International Studies University, was deeply attracted to this place.
At the end of the 1990s, Yucun became the wealthiest village in Anji through quarrying and operating cement factories, but at the expense of environmental damage. After much deliberation, Yucun decisively shut down its mines and cement plants, embarking on a new path of green development.
Ronan discovered that the local area has launched the "Yucun Global Partner Program." Currently, it has gathered over 60 "partners" who have settled in the village, more than 300 "youth co-creation partners," and over 500 "digital nomads." Erik Solheim, the former United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme, stepped into Yucun, he exclaimed, ‘this is what the future village will look like!’