The "15th Five-Year Plan" explicitly calls for deepening digital village construction and promoting the deep integration of artificial intelligence and big data with rural industries, grassroots governance, and public services, using digitalization to activate the internal momentum of rural revitalization.

Located at the southern foot of the Qinling Mountains, Foping County in Shaanxi Province covers a total area of 1,279 square kilometers with a population of 35,000. Its forest coverage rate reaches 91.19%, making it a core water source for the national "South-to-North Water Diversion" and "Water Diversion from Han to Wei" projects. Home to over 130 wild giant pandas, it is known as "China's No.1 Panda County." As a national digital village pilot county and a "Lucid Waters and Lush Mountains are Invaluable Assets" practice innovation base, Foping boasts exceptional ecological endowments. However, due to geographical constraints typical of mountainous regions, it has long faced challenges such as weak industries, talent outflow, and insufficient public service coverage.

In recent years, leveraging targeted assistance from the Cyberspace Administration of China and the full-ecosystem digital empowerment of internet technology companies, Foping has focused on five key areas: AI applications, digital cultural tourism, digital employment, digital-real integration, and digital public welfare. This has driven the deep penetration of digital technology into all rural areas, forging a new path of digital-intelligence-driven agriculture and technology-led prosperity suitable for mountainous counties.

AI Implementation Across the Board, Building a Foundation for Smart Rural Governance

Addressing the shortcomings of scattered mountain villages, a shortage of professional talent, and limited service reach, Foping partnered with Alibaba's public welfare arm and the China Internet Development Foundation to create the "AI Foping+" comprehensive smart service system. This system achieves full coverage of AI technology across multiple scenarios, including rural governance, agricultural technical services, public inquiries, and scenic area operations.

In April 2026, the AI integrated machine supported by Alibaba's public welfare initiative was deployed in Yinchanggou Village, Xichahe Town, achieving intelligent service coverage across all 44 administrative villages in the county. Gao Quan, Alibaba's stationed rural revitalization envoy in Foping, explained that the device can accurately recognize the Foping dialect, providing round-the-clock services such as planting and breeding technical guidance, medical insurance and social security explanations, preferential policy inquiries, and grassroots administrative consultation, thoroughly solving the difficulties mountain residents face in accessing services. Concurrently, a local team of 9 "digital economy seed" personnel was established to promote the implementation of AI scenarios and digital literacy. "AI digital humans understand local dialects and are on standby 24/7. Whether it's finding technical support for farming or checking policies for handling affairs, it's all just a click away, significantly upgrading public services in remote villages," said Gao Quan. The full implementation of AI has made rural governance more precise, efficient, convenient, and people-centric.

Digital Re-engineering of Cultural Tourism, Unlocking the Value of Ecological Resources for Prosperity

Foping boasts 79,000 hectares of giant panda habitat, the highest density of wild pandas in the country. The Qinling giant panda conservation case has been selected as a national biodiversity excellence case. Previously, these high-quality ecological resources suffered from fragmented business formats, extensive operations, and weak monetization capabilities. Leveraging Alibaba's digital and platform advantages, Foping has achieved a comprehensive digital upgrade of its cultural tourism industry.

Regarding smart scenic area construction, Alibaba customized a dedicated AI scenic area system for Foping's Old Street, covering functions like smart commentary, intelligent navigation, visitor flow monitoring, and online consultation, thereby filling the gap in smart services for mountain scenic spots. To address the shortcomings of Foping's tourism facilities, the Fliggy cultural tourism professional team provided full-process planning support, connecting high-quality resources like the Giant Panda Base, Daguping Panda Village, and Xi'an's Terracotta Warriors to create the "Call of the Panda" premium eco-cultural tourism route. The first week of the route's launch reportedly saw transaction volume exceeding 12 million yuan, effectively revitalizing the county's eco-cultural tourism resources. An innovative mechanism was also established to connect with and benefit farmers, transforming villagers from Daguping Village into "nature guides," offering services such as study tours, agricultural experiences, and specialty dining, with some villagers seeing monthly income increases of up to 10,000 yuan. "Deep mountain resources were once unknown, but now digital planning and platform-driven traffic turn scattered attractions into premium routes, truly converting lucid waters and lush mountains into wealth-generating industries," said a relevant official from the Qinling Golden Monkey Foping Rescue, Breeding and Research Base.

Digital Industry Establishment, Creating a Pathway for Young Talent to Return

Foping's mountainous characteristics are evident, with the secondary processing industry being nearly non-existent. This leads to insufficient local job opportunities and a significant problem of youth outflow. Relying on the Qinchuangyuan (Hanzhong) Innovation Promotion Center Foping Sub-center, the local government has facilitated the landing of Alibaba's digital industries, constructing a new development model of "sci-tech incubation + digital employment + talent return." The center, inaugurated in December 2023 with a building area of 2,500 square meters, now hosts 14 tech enterprises, has cultivated 7 high-tech enterprises and 30 tech-based SMEs, and has gathered 177 sci-tech talents. The fifth floor of the park houses the only directly managed digital employment base of Alibaba in the province: the Alibaba (Foping) Customer Experience Center. This base undertakes digital services like AIGC text annotation, platform compliance verification, and local life services. The base currently employs 80 people, with an average age of 26, 98% holding a college degree or higher, over 50% being returnees, and 25% being talents from outside Foping. The establishment of the digital industry has completely reversed the trend of talent outflow, attracting chain brands like Luckin Coffee and Mixue Ice Cream to enter the county for the first time, creating a virtuous cycle of "talent return, consumption upgrade, and business format prosperity," exploring a brand-new path for digital empowerment of talent revitalization in mountainous counties. Local e-commerce operators have seized this opportunity to transform and develop locally. "I used to work outside. Seeing the continuous improvement of the digital business environment in my hometown, I returned to start a business selling local agricultural products and Chinese medicinal herbs. Alibaba's AI practical training helped me significantly reduce costs. Previously, outsourcing graphics and text cost thousands of yuan per order; now I can do it myself in an hour. County-level e-commerce talent is scarce, and I hope more such training can be conducted in the future to cultivate more local digital talent," admitted Tang Peng, a local e-commerce operator in Foping. "Without relying on traditional industries or resource extraction, lightweight digital job positions retain young talent, injecting lasting youthful vitality into the development of this small county," introduced the head of the Alibaba (Foping) Customer Experience Center.

Deep Integration of Digital and Real Economies Empowers the Iterative Upgrade of Local Industries

To solve problems such as low added value of agricultural products, disconnected production and sales, and short industrial chains, Foping has relied on Alibaba's rural revitalization assistance system to implement three plans: e-commerce accompaniment, cultivation of industry leaders, and industrial chain return. This drives the digital, branded, and industrial upgrade of traditional agriculture. Zhou Zhengya, a young returnee entrepreneur, founded the "Nongxiaozhen" brand with full support from Alibaba's envoy, creating the popular Qinling mushroom soup packet. In 2025, she relocated the outsourced production line back to Foping and established a community factory, providing stable jobs for nearly 50 left-behind women in surrounding villages and towns. This led to an average annual income increase of 45,000 yuan for the employed, indirectly benefiting over 2,000 people. She also built a live-streaming incubation base, helping 25 young people and stay-at-home mothers find jobs near their homes. Digital empowerment has driven the rapid development of county-level e-commerce. The number of online shops has increased from 6 to 30, express outbound volume has grown tenfold, the single-piece express delivery fee has dropped from 6 yuan to 1.8 yuan, and the county's total annual e-commerce sales have exceeded 10 million yuan. Furthermore, Alibaba created the "Cornus + Panda" regional public brand and the "Xiong Xiaoxin" IP for Foping, covering over ten scenarios including transportation and scenic spots. In 2025, the county saw a 26.06% year-on-year increase in tourist arrivals and a 32.04% increase in total tourism revenue, achieving a strategic transformation from "selling resources" to "selling brands and ecology." "Digitalization has broken down the barriers between production and sales, allowing deep-mountain specialty products to leave the mountains and form industries, truly driving stable income growth for our fellow villagers," stated Zhou Zhengya, a local industry leader.

Digital Public Welfare Empowers the Creation of Heartwarming Rural Livelihood Services

Integrating digital operations concepts into basic livelihood security, Foping has relied on Alibaba's public welfare initiatives to implement the "Parents' Canteen" elderly support project, constructing a sustainable model for rural mutual aid for the elderly. In June 2023, the Parents' Canteen in Dongyuedian Village began operation, simultaneously covering Xichahe Village. It provides affordable meal services for nearly 100 left-behind and disadvantaged elderly people aged 65 and over across the county, where the elderly only need to pay 2 yuan per meal for a nutritious lunch with one meat and one vegetable dish. The canteen uses digital ledgers for standardized operations, supplemented by diverse services like health monitoring, psychological comfort, and holiday companionship. As of July 2026, the canteen serves an average of over 30 elderly people daily, regularly supports over 60 disadvantaged elderly, and has accumulated over 30,000 service instances. Grandma Guan, a 79-year-old villager from Dongyuedian Village who has been single-handedly caring for her disabled husband, walks 40 minutes round trip daily to eat at the canteen and bring food back for her husband. "We can eat hot, nutritious meals here and chat with neighbors. It makes our later years feel so much more secure and warm," said Grandma Guan. The investigation revealed that Alibaba's rural envoy system is centered on Party building leadership, constructing a three-level assistance system involving overall coordination by the group's Party committee, linkage by the county-based Party groups, and frontline deployment by envoys, achieving a two-way connection between organizational strength and platform resources. The system abandons standardized assistance models, adhering to a one-county-one-policy approach for precise empowerment, leveraging digital technology to tailor support for local industrial upgrading and livelihood improvement. It upholds a philosophy of long-term deep cultivation through a rotating envoy mechanism that continuously takes root at the grassroots level and implements projects, using the power of Party building to empower digital revitalization and create a sustainable, long-term model for internet enterprise rural revitalization assistance. Experts participating in the survey stated that Foping's rural revitalization has pioneered a new path of digital intelligence empowerment. Concurrently, Alibaba's rural envoy system has charted a new course for corporate public welfare in the new era. They hope more enterprises can learn from this institutional innovation to jointly consolidate efforts for rural revitalization. Aligning with the "15th Five-Year Plan" for digital village construction, Foping, rooted in its mountainous ecological endowments and centered on digital intelligence empowerment, has comprehensively addressed the development shortcomings of mountainous villages through AI-driven smart governance, digital cultural tourism upgrades, digital industry clustering, digital-real integration for agriculture, and digital public welfare as a safety net. This has forged a distinctive development path of small-county digitalization and deep-mountain revitalization. Looking ahead, Foping will continue to deepen the government-enterprise digital assistance mechanism, continuously amplify the advantages of technology empowerment and digital wealth creation for the people, promote the deep integration of ecological, digital, and livelihood values, and strive to build a model of mountain digital revitalization for a beautiful and livable countryside.