CCTV News: Recently, the 2025 National Hemei Rural Basketball Competition is being held in many places across the country. In Taipan Village, Guizhou, the participating team members composed of villagers started the competition with the sound of gongs and drums on the BA in the village. Passion and sweat collided, and wonderful duels were staged.

"Dongdongqiang!" The sun was just westward, and the "Sizhou war drum" shook the mountains. More than 10,000 fans had already surrounded the "Village BA" stadium in Taipan Village, Taijiang County, Qiandongnan Prefecture, Guizhou Province. The basketball court was filled with people, and the circular audience was filled. On the basketball court with lights as bright as day, there are two teams in Guizhou Province, the peak showdown between the Wangfeng Township Team of Leishan County and the Shangzhong Town Team of Liping County. The players actively fought, and the fans off the court beat and cheered for their wonderful performance.

"Village BA" is not only a "battlefield" for basketball enthusiasts to fight, but also a "stage" to showcase national culture. During the intermission, the Miao girl would step into the stadium wearing shining silver jewelry, and various folk performances were performed one after another.

A small mountain village changed by a ball

Taipan Village, a small mountain village that was once unknown and not famous in Taijiang County, has now become a holy place in the hearts of many folk basketball enthusiasts across the country. Because of a basketball, the small village in this valley is very different now.

This year is the third year that the "Village BA" has become popular in the circle. Nowadays, there are teams here and every village, and every month there are events, and everyone is a fan. The competition was held in a mountain village. The players were all surrounding villagers, and the prizes were all kinds of agricultural products and handicrafts, which was full of "village flavor".

On the court, the sound of basketball hitting the ground and cheers were intertwined; outside the court, this folk basketball event that began in the countryside is transforming the "traffic" brought by sports into a tangible economic increase. Stepping out of the "Village BA" stadium, along the stone road, the old Taipan Village stadium is completely renovated. The words "Taipan 1936" in the middle circle of the stadium seem to tell people the long-standing basketball tradition in the village. The "Village BA" theme cafe next to it attracted many tourists to check in and take photos.

This small mountain village where only elderly and children were left behind in the past years, now more than 70% of young people in the village choose to return to their hometown to work. Opening restaurants and homestays, developing breeding industries, finding employment in the park, etc., the "fireworks" in the village are back.

In the offline experience store of "Village BA" close to the stadium, there is a shortage of supply and demand for cultural and creative products around jerseys, badges, dolls, etc. During the competition, the local area also held a "Travel with the 'Village BA'" event, and comprehensively displayed its characteristic tourism resources to more than 150 travel agencies and cultural and tourism units inside and outside the province through basketball events, intangible cultural heritage experience, and high-quality route promotion. Zhang De, deputy head of Taipan Township, Taijiang County, said: "The 'village BA' not only brings an increase in income from each household, but also includes the growth of the collective economy. The collective economic income in 2022 was 431,000 yuan, 1.1657 million yuan in 2023, and 7.12 million yuan in 2024."