Published by ChinaMNC · Binjiang

One Field, One City: What Hangzhou's 'Farming Planet' Project Shows Foreign Founders About Turning Content Into Local Business

A Hangzhou media company turned a farming reality show's filming site into an agritourism park. For foreign founders, the case illustrates how local government coordination, patient site development and content-led business building work in practice in China.

A field as a reason to visit Hangzhou

For foreign founders weighing where and how to build a business in China, a Hangzhou case study is worth a closer look. It shows how a local content company moved from making television to operating a physical site — and how local government coordination helped the idea take root.

The project is called Farming Planet (种地星球), located at No. 58 Houdoumen in Sandun Town, Xihu District, Hangzhou. It began as the filming location for a reality show about young people learning to farm, and has since become an agritourism and cultural park.

Zheng Weilong, chairman of Lantianxia (Zhejiang) Media Group, recalled an event at the site where young visitors from Guangdong, Sichuan and Henan — strangers before arriving — found common ground because they liked the show. Some tourists, he said, arrive in the afternoon with suitcases and fly out the same evening just to spend two hours there.

From screen to physical site

The company's earlier productions took its team into rural areas in different places. Over time, the team developed an idea: let audiences not only see a story on screen but also experience the life depicted in it offline. The farming show's format, discussed over several years, focused on young people and their growth alongside the land.

That approach requires respecting crop cycles and committing for the long term. Participants moved from unfamiliarity with farm work to learning sowing, management and harvesting, with changes occurring through daily labor. Viewers waited alongside them, watching crops grow and observing how the participants handled difficulties and learned to cooperate. Traditional farming culture thus entered the daily reality of young people today.

Why this location

According to Zheng, the team chose Houdoumen in Sandun Town for its position close to the city, its genuine farmland and rural environment, and space that could support later development. As a local enterprise, the company also wanted to leave something behind in the place where it is rooted.

Turning the idea into reality required local support. Filming involved agricultural production, while offline development touched land, building planning and public services. Xihu District set up a dedicated working group for the project, coordinating multiple departments to safeguard filming while exploring ways to combine agriculture, culture and tourism.

Local participation also enriched the show. Sandun Town organized resources related to agricultural products, folk customs and culture, and helped arrange for show participants to take part in activities such as preparing Lixia rice and dragon boat rowing. Seasonal customs from Hangzhou's countryside entered the screen through young people's experiences and reached wider audiences.

Real fields, local life and city services together allowed the creative idea to take root. What the land offered the cultural IP was both filming space and people and stories that could continue to be told.

Building an operating business

As the show aired, No. 58 Houdoumen became a name familiar to viewers. Work scenes, along with setbacks, waiting and harvests, stayed in people's memories. The irreplaceability of a piece of land formed gradually through these experiences: similar rural scenery can be found elsewhere, but the time people invested and the stories they remember became tied to this address.

In May 2023, the Houdoumen Farming Planet project was announced. On September 17, 2025, the park officially opened. What began as a filming location grew into concrete commercial space.

• 23 operating shops currently cover food and beverage, homestays, pets, trend cultural products, and team-building and study-tour activities.
• More than 4.2 million visitors have been received since opening, turning affection built on screen into real trips to Hangzhou.

Content as the root

Zheng uses a tree to explain how content and business relate: content is like the roots, and industry is the fruit. The deeper the roots, the stronger the foundation for later development.

One way the park develops new business formats is by drawing inspiration from details viewers already know. The Mai Mang restaurant incorporates crayfish and roses that appeared in the show into its menu, and drew on Sandun Town's Dragon Boat Festival races to create a dish called "dragon boat culter fish." Farm work from the show and local Hangzhou life thus extend to the dining table, letting visitors find a connection to the story over a meal.

The park's businesses are also given time to grow like crops. Zheng said street shops are either self-operated by the team or run through partnerships, to keep content and operating philosophy consistent. The team is willing to give business formats three to five years to develop. During filming periods, some areas pause operations, and commercial arrangements give way to content production — a choice meant to preserve the creative foundation that continues to attract people. In summer 2026, combined with a Hangzhou concert tour and park events, Farming Planet recorded up to 40,000 visitors on its peak day.

Giving people reasons to return

To give people reasons to visit again, the park continuously updates activities around solar terms and festivals. It has held events including the Houdoumen Harvest Festival, the Farming Planet Cup Common Prosperity Agricultural Fun Games and a Houdoumen youth recruitment fair — more than 80 events in total. From field experiences to theater performances, and from gatherings of like-minded people to learning about job opportunities, the park is adding ways for different groups to participate and continually adding new content to daily life on the land.

Zheng treats sustained visitor attraction as an important operating challenge. Events require investment and may not immediately generate revenue, but the team still hopes updates will give people of different interests and ages a reason to stay. Attention accumulated by the IP gave the park a starting opportunity; the everyday work that follows requires operators to keep enriching it.

Links to local industry and residents

The park's growth is also building more connections with Hangzhou's industries and local residents' lives. As of June 2026, the project had led to 27 enterprises registering and establishing operations in Xihu District. Business exploration extending from content production is gradually becoming market entities rooted in Hangzhou.

Supporting service businesses in the park have helped create employment for at least 170 local residents. Land transfer brings rental income, experienced older farmers take part in agricultural production and become mentors whom young people consult, and retired village official Ye Shunhu became familiar to young audiences through his role as an agricultural adviser on the show. Planting experience accumulated in the countryside is being recognized anew through new channels of communication and exchange, and continues to play a role in park operations.

From show to park, and on to employment, agriculture and daily consumption, Farming Planet's growth continues. Creation helps more people see Hangzhou's fields; city services let the story take root; and people's visits and participation bring new vitality to the land.

What foreign founders can take away

Hangzhou's cultural IPs grow like crops in a field: they have their own rhythm, need time, and require sustained cultivation. The city provides the soil for stories, while creators and operators tend them patiently so they can take root and branch out. A new gathering, a job close to home, a memory connected to Hangzhou — these are the harvests accumulated bit by bit through that work.

For foreign founders, the practical lessons are about process rather than promises:

• Expect coordination. A project touching land, planning and public services involved a dedicated district working group and multiple departments. Build time for this into your plans.
• Choose locations for concrete advantages. The team cited proximity to the city, authentic farmland and room for later development — not incentives alone.
• Let content and operations reinforce each other. The park draws business ideas from show details and local customs, keeping the commercial side connected to the creative root.
• Plan for patient cultivation. The team is prepared to give business formats three to five years to mature, and accepts that events may not pay back immediately.
• Track local linkages. Enterprise registrations, local hiring and land arrangements are part of how the project connects to its district.

This summary is based on information published by the relevant Chinese government website and is general information, not legal or tax advice.