More than sixty Singaporean overseas Chinese recently participated in a study tour in Suichang County, Lishui City, Zhejiang Province, immersing themselves in the local culture and traditional agricultural activities.

From June 6th to 16th, the group explored fields, visited village courtyards, and took part in distinctive farming practices, deeply experiencing the culture of southwestern Zhejiang and traditional Chinese customs.

In a muddy pond beside the rice paddies, children rolled up their trousers, stepped barefoot into the mud, and bent down to chase the slippery loaches, with exclamations and laughter rising and falling.

"I think catching loaches is very interesting. I had never seen a loach before, so it feels especially novel being here," said Huang Shan, a Singaporean overseas Chinese who was very excited.

Beside a stone mortar, participants took turns swinging a wooden mallet, repeatedly pounding steaming glutinous rice into soft, chewy rice cakes. A stone mill turned slowly, with snow-white soy milk flowing out from the millstone, filling the air with the fragrance of beans.

These ancient handicrafts allowed the visitors from afar to personally touch the daily life and atmosphere of the countryside.

"I am originally from Suichang, and this hometown sentiment always makes me want to recommend the local landscapes and food to my friends in Singapore," said Zhang Hongfei, the principal of the Singapore Family Growth Alliance.

In his view, while Singapore is dominated by urban landscapes, Suichang's well-preserved green waters and mountains, along with its simple and tranquil rural scenery, represent a unique and scarce kind of scenery.

"There are many children in our group. I wanted to bring them to Suichang to personally feel the long-standing Chinese culture and experience a different way of life," Zhang added.

Recognizing this demand, the "Qu Ye Xi FUN" rural cultural tourism planning and operation team in Xiban Township leveraged local ecological, cultural, and agricultural resources.

Focusing on the overseas Chinese community's desire to "seek roots and nostalgia" and the need for parent-child interactive experiences, the team designed scenario-based activities.

They integrated farming activities like catching loaches, making rice cakes, and grinding tofu with Dragon Boat Festival customs such as making zongzi and dragon boat racing into modular experience packages.

This resulted in a customized, immersive thematic study program titled "Tasting Nostalgia in Xiban" for the overseas Chinese visitors.

"Different from conventional sightseeing tours, we transform local resources into participatory, portable, shareable, and replicable study tour products," said Wu Min, a member of the Xiban Township Committee in Suichang County.

"By organizing villagers to serve as farming guides and participate in providing accommodation and food services, we have helped about 15 farming households increase their income by nearly a thousand yuan, truly turning 'nostalgia' into 'rural reward'," Wu explained.

Moving forward, the local area plans to integrate the distinctive content from this study tour, including the farming experiences and Dragon Boat Festival customs, into the regular visitor experience modules for the upcoming Dragon Boat Festival holiday.

This initiative aims to achieve high-quality cultural and tourism content that is created once and shared across the entire region.