A new media program titled "Discovering China – Guizhou" was officially launched.

In the program, three guests – Nick Gu from Russia, Jorge Canalejas from Spain, and Jacopo Maria Lasala from Italy – were invited to attend a basketball event in Taipan Village. They were each assigned different tasks, ahead of finding a basketball enthusiast to join them at the event.

The Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture is renowned for its well-protected ecological environment, rich culture, charming folk customs, and affectionate, optimistic and open-minded people who have developed their ethnic character over thousands of years.

And quite by chance, this land has been ignited by "happy basketball." With videos of basketball games and players from Taipan Village going viral online, many youngsters have returned home to devote their time to building up their beautiful hometowns. Their passion and enthusiasm have re-energized the village. And thanks to their efforts, people across the world are becoming increasingly aware of China’s sports boom. 

Jorge was assigned to visit the Gaoyao Rice Terraces to find a basketball fan. To complete this task, he needed to help with the rice transplanting. While working with the locals, Jorge was introduced to the unique landform of the terraces, where he learned that they had been created in varying sizes due to the differences in altitude and slope of the mountain.

The unique landforms here led to the formation of terraced rice fields that are no larger than 1 mu, and often much smaller. Emerging from the small villages scattered among the terraces and beautiful natural scenery, Jorge was amazed by the harmonious coexistence of human and nature here. "It's amazing to find people actually live on what the mountain has to offer." He completed his task and found a local man keen to join the basketball game. 

Jacopo came to Miaozhai Village with only a wax-dyeing doll as a clue. He was lucky to find a Rooster Dance show when he arrived, and joined the performers dancing along with music played on a lusheng, a type of reed-pipe wind instrument. After the dance show, Jacopo was introduced to how to play the lusheng and learned about the costumes, music, and stories behind the Rooster Dance, deepening Jacopo's understanding of ethnic Miao culture. Jacopo also met two 80-year-old grandmothers who were busy weaving cotton cloth on a loom. To Jacopo, local people were happy, kind, and nice. Jacopo invited the lusheng player to play basketball with him. 

Nick, with only a tea bag as a clue, arrived at a tea garden, where he was shown the skills needed to pick tea leaves and how to find the best leaves for tea making. He was told that to obtain the highest quality tea leaves, picking them by hand was a must. For other procedures beyond that, most tea gardens relied on scientific means, including a soil sample analysis system that helps effectively identify the fertility of the land and a pest monitoring system that helps analyze the pests in the tea garden so that timely measures can be taken to ensure the yield and quality of tea leaves.

Nick liked the idea of intelligent agriculture as it not only helped achieve efficient analysis and precise seeding but also improved yield and quality. With the tea garden empowered by big data technology, Nick believed that it would offer more potential to tea planters. Nick invited the tea workers to join the basketball game. 

With all the players ready, the Discovering China team and the Taipan Village team started their game. As fiercely competitive as it was, the game allowed the members of the two teams to get to know each other better. With Taipan becoming famous for its basketball events, young players from the village are not only well-known in Guizhou but also elsewhere in China.

These events are bringing both fun and practical benefits to the villagers, and attracting more and more young people to return home and work in their hometown. Thanks to the efforts of these youngsters, these sports events are contributing to the development of the local economy and helping infuse the local ethnic culture with a sense of sporting spirit. This new look also shows the outside world the infinite potential of rural areas of China.