Tourists enjoy a panoramic view from a platform in Xijingyu village, Tianjin, on Aug 4. The spot is marked by a stone carved with characters meaning "gaze into the distance at dusk from a cliff facing the west".

Electricians examine charging piles at a parking lot in the village.

Engineers inspect electricity facilities at a commercial street in the village.

Tourists create sketches in Xijingyu, also known as "stone village", in Tianjin on Aug 4.

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Editor's note: As protection of the planet's flora, fauna and resources becomes increasingly important, China Daily is publishing a series of stories to illustrate the country's commitment to safeguarding the natural world.

Nestled in the low mountains of Tianjin's Jizhou district, Xijingyu is defined by its stone. Built almost entirely from local limestone by generations of miners, the centuries-old village's winding slate alleys and courtyard walls draw more than 600,000 visitors a year seeking a quiet retreat from nearby urban Beijing and Tianjin.

Xijingyu's sudden transformation from a sparse mining settlement into a boutique travel hot spot nearly collapsed under the weight of its own success.

When the local quarry closed in 2004, villagers turned to rural tourism, converting heritage stone homes into guesthouses. But the village's antique infrastructure was ill-equipped for modern hospitality.

Just over a decade ago, the village ran on only two small transformers. Peak-hour power cuts were routine during holidays, when guesthouses ran air conditioners, water heaters and kitchen appliances at full capacity. Voltage fluctuations also disrupted refrigeration and baking equipment for local food businesses.

"I spent a fortune fitting every room with air conditioning, but the grid simply couldn't handle it," recalled Zhou Yunlong, a local homestay operator. "When all units switched on at once, the circuits would trip. Power cuts were so frequent that guests would complain and even cancel bookings. I had no choice but to limit how many guests I could take."

Winter presented another challenge. Traditional coal-fired kang — heated brick bed platforms — stained the historical stone walls with soot, created fire hazards in narrow lanes, and left businesses unable to operate during colder months.

The dilemma Xijingyu faced is common across Asia's historical rural communities: how to provide modern urban amenities without destroying the heritage aesthetic that attracts visitors in the first place.

Between 2017 and 2018, local authorities and utility planners initiated a total overhaul of the village's utility footprint. To avoid cluttering the skyline with utility poles and dangling cables, engineers buried supply lines directly beneath the historical flagstone lanes and placed distribution transformers discreetly outside the primary scenic zones.

Engineers replaced the two overloaded transformers with 13 distribution units, boosting total power capacity nearly 100-fold.

By 2022, the village's annual electricity demand reached 3.32 million kilowatt-hours.

"You can't see a single wire along the lanes now," said Zhou Jian, a village official. "That was non-negotiable for us. The stone scenery is why people come here. Exposed poles and wires would have ruined the whole aesthetic."

Wu Xiangyi, director of the urban power supply service center at State Grid Tianjin Jizhou Power Supply Co, said the biggest challenge of the upgrade was making it invisible. "Over two-thirds of the village's buildings are stone-built, with narrow lanes and strict aesthetic requirements," Wu said. "We adopted a scheme of buried cables along flagstone lanes and transformers placed discreetly outside core scenic areas. Preserving the village's stone character was always our top priority."

Seventy-three guesthouses have now fully converted from coal and gas to electric power, covering heating, cooling, hot-spring water heating, cooking and lighting.

Even the traditional brick kang beds have been preserved in form but upgraded to electric heating. They retain their rustic look and cozy feel, but operate cleanly with precise temperature control, extending the village's tourist season by three months into winter.

"Our guests love the traditional kang bed experience, but they don't want the coal dust," said Shi Chao, manager of Tianjin Jizhou Yuyang Tourism Development Co. "Now we have the best of both worlds — the nostalgia of an old stone village, with all the comfort of modern electricity. Green power plays a vital role here."

Chen Xu, deputy head of the market management and industry development division at the Jizhou district culture and tourism bureau, said Xijingyu is a textbook example of how greener energy supply can resolve the long-standing tension between heritage protection and tourism development in ancient villages.

"Jizhou is home to more than 500 registered homestays across many historical villages. What worked here can be replicated elsewhere, proving that preservation and prosperity don't have to be trade-offs," Chen said.

For visitors arriving in new energy vehicles, 29 public charging points have been installed across Xijingyu, backed by a dedicated 630 kVA charging transformer, eliminating range anxiety for self-drive tourists from nearby cities.

"We planned our trip specifically because we knew there were chargers here," said Sun Weitao and his wife, a young couple from Tangshan, Hebei province, topping up their car before hiking nearby Fujun Mountain. "It makes a weekend trip to a mountain village completely stress-free."

Reliable power has also nurtured a diverse local business ecosystem. Annual tourism revenue reached 35 million yuan last year, a figure unthinkable when power shortages held the village back. Peak-season homestay occupancy regularly tops 90 percent, according to local officials.

State Grid said this electric transformation is in line with the Chinese government's concept that "lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets".

The power company has assigned dedicated "electricity butlers" to the area, providing 24/7 real-time grid monitoring and uninterrupted power supply. "Load patterns in ordinary rural areas are steady, but Xijingyu is completely different — weekend and holiday demand can double or triple, with extra peaks during heat waves and cold snaps," said Xin Wenxuan, team leader of Grid Team No 3 at the urban power supply service center of State Grid Tianjin Jizhou Power Supply Co.

"We run a one-village-one-manager system, conduct pre-peak inspections ahead of busy seasons, and our Party member service team stays on-site during public holidays. We can respond to most faults within half an hour. Our job is not just to keep the power on — it's to keep it reliable without disrupting the visitor experience," Xin said.

Xijingyu is one of hundreds of villages across Tianjin benefiting from the municipality's rural grid modernization drive. Citywide, the program has lifted rural power supply reliability to more than 99.9 percent, building a largely integrated urban-rural power network.

The coal-to-electricity scheme cuts annual scattered coal consumption by 758,000 metric tons, contributing to the city's carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals. It also aligns with the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which calls for universal access to affordable, reliable and sustainable modern energy.

yandongjie@chinadaily.com.cn