The 2025 'ziquejie terraced fields in dialogue with the world' opened in xinhua county:he 2025 'Ziquejie Terraced Fields in Dialogue with the World' opened in Xinhua County, Loudi City, bringing together around 200 participants from China and abroad. The event, which also serves as the Third Agricultural Cultural Exchange and Mutual Learning Conference and the Ninth Agricultural Heritage Conference, gathered representatives of global and national agricultural cultural heritage sites, as well as experts and scholars in related fields.
According to BERNAMA News Agency, the event aims to provide an international dialogue platform to explore the protection of agricultural cultural heritage, share traditional farming practices, and advance sustainable development. With the theme 'Re-empowering Living Agricultural Heritage, Innovating the Inheritance of Agricultural Civilization, and Promoting Sustainable Agricultural Development', the three-day programme features keynote speeches, reports, forums, field inspections, and tourism promotion meetings.
In recent years, Loudi City has strengthened protection and management of terraced fields, enhanced the cultural value of agricultural heritage, and promoted integration with cultural tourism and intangible heritage. Initiatives such as public adoption of terraced fields, research and education programmes, and tourism festivals have been launched to boost rural revitalisation and raise villagers' incomes.
The Ziquejie Terraced Fields are noted for their scenery across four seasons, from silver ribbons in spring to golden mountains in autumn. In 2024, the site attracted more than 600,000 tourists and generated tourism income of about 200 million Chinese yuan. (100 Chinese yuan = RM58.98)
The terraced fields, with over a thousand years of history, are becoming a model for integrating agriculture, culture, and tourism, while the initiative is part of broader efforts to create new opportunities for sustainable development while preserving rural heritage.