Players of Yuezhai Village and the team of Fengle Village compete during a "Village Super League" football match in Rongjiang County of Southwest China's Guizhou Province, on June 9, 2023. (Xinhua/Yang Wenbin)

More than 100 rural sports events will be established by 2035 in an effort to promote nationwide rural revitalization, according to a new initiative recently published by the General Administration of Sport of China and 12 other ministries.

The initiative aims boost national fitness in rural areas by 2025 and streamline sports mechanisms to facilitate rural revitalization. A number of prototypical sports events for rural revitalization will be created, with the long-term goal of running over 100 rural sports events across the country, the Xinhua News Agency reported Monday.

A perfect example has already been found in "Cunchao," or the Village Super Football League. Established in Rongjiang county, Southwest China's Guizhou Province, the league has taken the country by storm recently. 

No professional players. No tickets. No commercials. It's soccer in its purest form. Every Friday to Sunday since May 13, tens of thousands of people have gathered around an open field to enjoy matches held in this county with a population of less than 400,000. 

Players in the grass-roots league come from various ethnic groups and all walks of life including vendors, construction workers and couriers.

The sensational league has earned billions of views online and drawn a massive influx of tourists not only for soccer, but also local cuisine and folk performances.

According to China's major travel platform qunar.com, during the recent Dragon Boat Festival, there were 15 times more reservations at Rongjiang hotels compared with the same period in 2019.

Taking advantage of the craze, the local government set up a nighttime snack street, encouraging vendors to come up with creative ways to tout their businesses and sell local agricultural specialties to boost the local economy via catering, accommodation and tourism.

In the same vein, the "Village Basketball Association" tournament, which ended in March in Taijiang county, Guizhou Province, received 181,900 visitors and achieved an overall tourism income of 55.16 million yuan ($7.63 million), driving a 140 percent year-on-year increase in tourism bookings in the county.

Be it a soccer league or a basketball event, sports have opened a new window for rural revitalization.