A child visits a book bar that was renovated from a cattle pen in Xiyuan township, Fujian province. [Photo provided to ChinaDaily]

Like many migrant workers, Yang Qiaoxing jumped on the bandwagon by leaving his rural bungalow for life in the city.
Little did he expect that the stinky cattle pen in his backyard could be turned into a book bar in East China's Fujian province.
In Shangping village in Xiyuan township, it is not just Yang's cattle pen that has been rehabbed into a wooden house, but also nearly every livestock enclosure, barn and rundown kitchen have been turned into such spaces to house shops and recreational areas as the impoverished village makes a concerted effort to spearhead rural transformation.
Comfy couches offer people a place to pass time as they get lost in stores filled with books neatly organized on shelves.
If it was not for the brick fence on the first floor, Yang would never be able to recognize the transformed nook which was once his cattle pen.
"I got a phone call from the Party chief of the village committee three years ago telling me the village's plan to make use of obsolete structures for renovation to better suit the overall tourism development," said Yang, who seldom returns to the village.
He said he now leases his cattle pen, earning 200 yuan ($29) a year in rental income from the village's operation of the book bar.
Nestled in the mountains between the provinces of Fujian and Jiangxi in eastern China, Shangping village boasts a history of over 1,000 years. There are 26 historical sites recognized by the province, which used to be mansions, gardens and memorial arches of big family clans in the village.

Yang said the village was left behind during modernization. In 2016, there were only 100 people in the village as compared with a population of over 700 before, as people left the village in search for a better life.

The environment in the village was one factor that pushed young people away.

Yang said sewage used to flow freely on the ground and messy electric wires hung in the air like spider webs, not to mention the stinky animal pens.

The village's campaign for tourism development was unleashed via a government sponsored poverty alleviation project in 2016 when the township government invited architecture experts from the Central Academy of Fine Arts and Tsinghua University to help roll out a sketch of the tourist village based on Shangping's resources.

Zhou Bin, Party chief of Xiyuan township, said that as a planned tourist attraction, Shangping must have tourist facilities and upgraded infrastructure such as waste treatment and power lines.

A total of 30 million yuan has been invested in rehabbing obsolete and uninhabited buildings into tourist facilities.

During the May Day holiday earlier this month, the small village received some 2,000 tourists.

As tourists wander into the village, they are amused to find pig sties turned into bars, an old tobacco-making workshop transformed into a teahouse and an exhibition hall displaying exhibits of the village's past with old furniture, household items and tools.

The thriving tourism has brought entrepreneurial opportunities, and the village has seen many villagers returning. There are some 300 locals in the village now.

Li Zongyan, 31, is one of them. After working in the port city of Quanzhou for years, she came home and started a restaurant in September.

"Starting a business at home gives me the perfect balance between family and work," Li said. She receives some 20 reservations for dinner on average a day.

Zhou said a 100-kilometer highway is under construction, which would make traffic to the scenic and historical village more convenient.