The 2024 season of China's Village Basketball Association (VBA) began on Friday in Taipan Village, Taijiang County, southwest China's Guizhou Province.

It has been over two years since the VBA became a great hit on the internet all over the world. The season opener was between the Meishan God of War from central China's Hunan Province and the Vanguards of Snow World from northwest China's Gansu Province. Many players of the latter are of Mongolian ethnicity and wanted to display every piece of their passion for the sport in front of spectators from China.

Though it's a village basketball league, the VBA, from this season on, allowed each team to have at most two players with urban hukou on their rotations for one game. In this way, more players will be able to compete at this rising stage of the sport.

The 2024 season will begin with the group stage in 24 competition zones around China to decide the top two teams from each zone. These teams will travel to Taipan Village for further games from July to October. The finals will take place in early November.

As the VBA becomes more and more popular, it has brought more business opportunities for locals in tourism and retail. For example, two stores were opened in Taijiang to sell both VBA products, including jerseys, shirts, basketballs and local agricultural specialties.

According to China Media Group, the total number of tourist visits to Taijiang surpassed 6.4 million.