Students pick strawberries in the greenhouse. [Photo/WeChat account: rudongfb]

In recent years, Rudong county in Nantong, East China's Jiangsu province, has been developing family farms as a way to propel rural vitalization.

At present, there are 4,576 family farms of a certain scale that have been included in the national list. Their gross operating area exceeds 32,546 hectares.

A group of primary school students recently visited the Hongqiao and Aiyun family farms in Juegang sub-district, where they experienced rural life by picking strawberries, weeding and learning about farming culture.

"I think it's beautiful here," said Ma Wenxuan, one of the students. "We not only get to appreciate the pastoral lifestyle, but also learn stuff you can't learn in textbooks."

The Hongqiao and Aiyun family farms were set up by Zhang Aiyun in 2017 and 2020, respectively, costing some 30 million yuan ($4.5 million) in total.

In recent years, focusing on the integrated development of primary, secondary and tertiary industries, the farms have formed a new development model integrating farming experience, student field trips, agricultural products processing, and leisure tourism.

Moving forward, Zhang will emphasize homestay construction to better satisfy customers' demands.