Lying in a gorge(峡谷) near the Minjiang River in Southwest China’s Sichuan province, Taoping Qiang village     1    (stay) here for over two thousand years.

Originally constructed for military defense, the village’s watchtower has seen the flames of war extinguished(熄灭的) over the ages and is now a tourist     2    (attract). Surviving the terrible 2008 Wenchuan earthquake, the tower still stands tall and now witnesses the area’s change.

The village was reconstructed after that, and a new village in the same architectural style was built nearby, with many residents choosing     3    (move) there for a better quality of life. Today, visitors are     4    (continuous) drawn to the beautiful village, bringing prosperity(繁荣) to the local tourism industry.

By Dec 25, the Taoping village area had welcomed 189,000 tourists in 2023, driving sales of local farm products to 30.8 million yuan and generating over 95.2 million yuan in tourism income. The trend has brought new opportunities and benefits to     5    (local), such as Maixi, who is a member of the Qiang ethnic group. Her journey has mirrored the great development of her hometown.

Maixi, one of the eight children, worked as a shepherd(牧羊人) when she was a girl. Now 60, she has achieved prosperity by changing her ancestral home     6     a homestay business. And she has expanded her business by opening a four-story homestay in the new village, drawing in a steady stream of customers     7     enjoy her signature dish of a hearty soup with vegetables. Maixi is not shy about saying she now leads a life that seemed impossible in her youth. The income her family brought in by selling Sichuan peppers was quite important during her childhood, she remembers,     8     the children would work alongside the adults all day long throughout the harvest season as sun-dried peppers reached a high price.

“With over 440 households and a population of more than 1,300, the village no     9    (long) relies on herding(畜牧). Half of our workforce is now involved in tourism, and we also cultivate over 1,000 mu of cherries and other     10    (variety) fruits. In recent years, the average income per mu has been about 60,000 yuan,” says Yang Buyi, Party chief of Taoping.