BEIJING, Dec. 30 (Xinhua) — China is wrapping up its 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025) and set to enter the next five-year development period. Over the past five years, China’s countryside has become more vibrant and prosperous, with grain production setting a new record, agricultural modernization making progress and rural communities becoming more livable.
Join us on a visual journey to witness the dynamic transformations unfolding across China’s vast countryside in 2025.
TECHNOLOGY RESHAPING AGRICULTURE
China is reshaping its agriculture with technological innovations that help ensure the country’s food security and lay the groundwork for rural revitalization. Smart agriculture is flourishing across China with AI, low-altitude technology, and information technology being progressively integrated into farming and grain processing.
A drone photo shows harvesters reaping wheat in the fields in Pantang Village of Lizhuang Town, Shangqiu City, central China’s Henan Province, June 4, 2025. (Photo by Li Heng/Xinhua)
An aerial drone photo taken on July 2, 2025 shows smart glass greenhouses at a modern agricultural industrial park in Fuyuan City, northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province. (Xinhua/Zhang Tao)
A harvester works in a highland barley field in Lhunzhub County, in Lhasa, southwest China’s Xizang Autonomous Region, Sept. 23, 2025. (Xinhua/Tenzin Nyida)
TECHNOLOGY MODERNIZING RURAL LIFE
The wave of technological empowerment is sweeping China’s vast countryside, playing a critical role in the country’s push for rural revitalization, further narrowing the urban-rural gap and bringing common prosperity to rural residents.
An aerial drone photo taken on June 16, 2025 shows a wind-solar hybrid power plant near Caojiazhuang Village, Zanhuang County, north China’s Hebei Province. (Xinhua/Yang Shiyao)
A doctor examines a patient on a “smart mobile clinic,” which brings essential healthcare services to local villagers, in Libao Village, Jingning She Autonomous County, east China’s Zhejiang Province, July 8, 2025. (Xinhua/Jiang Han)
TECHNOLOGY EMPOWERING “NEW FARMERS”
With the improvements in rural infrastructure over recent years, along with factors such as a favorable ecological environment, a slower pace of life and lower living costs, a growing number of more highly educated “new farmers” are returning to the countryside, helping to reshape Chinese agriculture by applying technology and business expertise to fields once dominated by manual labor.
Zhang Guihua, Party secretary of Sunzigou Village, promotes oranges via live-streaming at an orchard in Cangxi County of Guangyuan City, southwest China’s Sichuan Province, Dec. 12, 2025. Cangxi County has crafted an innovative model to boost rural development, which incorporates family farming cooperatives, live-streaming platforms as well as online and offline marketing. Remarkably, Party secretaries of villages in the county are spearheading sessions of e-commerce promotion, driving the sales of local specialties across the country to substantially improve local farmers’ income. (Xinhua/Zhang Long)
