Qingshan Village青山村

Qingshan Village sits in Huanghu Town, Yuhang District, Hangzhou, at the core of the Da Jingshan Rural National Forest Park, with forest coverage running around 79.9%. Just over a decade ago this was a hollowed-out village — its young people gone, living mostly off selling raw bamboo. Starting in 2014, The Nature Conservancy took an interest in protecting the village's small water source, and together with the Alibaba Foundation and Vanke Trust launched the "Good Water Fund," beginning with a watershed-protection project at Longwu Reservoir. That project gradually pulled in nature education, design research and eco-agriculture. Today Qingshan is one of Hangzhou's flagship "future village" cases — the RONG Design Library, Qingshan Nature School and the Qingshan Youth Community have all put down roots here, drawing over a hundred designers, artists and environmental workers to settle.

Culture

A traditional-materials research institute inside a former auditorium

• Designer Zhang Lei's team converted the village's abandoned Dongwu Hall into the RONG Design Library in 2018, after about 10 months of renovation
• The library runs a 10-year research plan launched in 2012, working systematically through Chinese traditional materials and crafts — bamboo, silk, earth, copper — year by year
• It has catalogued over 300 types of handmade paper, plus archives on weaving, dyeing, joinery and casting
• Open Tuesday–Sunday (09:00–12:00, 13:30–18:00); visits and courses can be booked — check the official channel before you go

Community

From a hollowed-out village to a "future village" experiment with over a hundred new residents

• A small-watershed protection project led by The Nature Conservancy from 2014 was the starting point of Qingshan's transformation
• As of April 2026, over 130 designers, artists and environmental workers have settled here as "new residents"
• Disused auditoriums, factories and a kindergarten have been converted into shared spaces like the RONG Design Library and the Qingshan Youth Community's Longwu Li / Lisanpan
• In 2025, Qingshan's collective operating income jumped to ¥4.1 million from ¥668,000 in 2019, with visitor numbers up roughly 50% over the same period

Nature

A nature-education base among bamboo groves, a creek and a forest park

• Sits at the core of the Da Jingshan Rural National Forest Park, with forest coverage around 79.9%
• Qingshan Nature School was converted from a disused village primary school in 2019, its main building built with traditional rammed-earth technique
• The school runs nature-education programs year-round, mostly hosting K-12 study-tour groups (over 6,000 student visits from January to August alone, per a 2019 report)
• Roughly 500-plus mu of bamboo groves around Longwu Reservoir were the starting point of the small-watershed protection project

Honest fit

Not a photo-op stop — a village story that rewards slowing down

• There's no traditional "scenic gate" here — the RONG Design Library and Qingshan Nature School are research/education institutions, not commercial attractions; check official opening info before you go
• Best for deep travelers curious about rural revitalization, design research, nature education and co-living experiments — not a great fit for a quick photo-op visit
• Based on its positioning, it should also suit deep-culture travelers, first-timers to China, and slow/long-stay travelers — though that's still provisional and needs real visitors to help calibrate
• Dining and lodging infrastructure is still growing — confirm directly with local organizations before you arrive