What changed
A surfboard has helped turn Caoyu, a small fishing village in Zhejiang’s Cangnan County, into the support hub for Haixiwan’s growing surf scene. The coast now offers nearly 200 surfable days a year, more than 100 homestays along the wider “168 Golden Coast,” and 3.59 million visitors who generated 805 million yuan in tourism revenue in the first half of 2026.
The shift is visible in the village economy:
- Young people who had left for work have returned as coaches, safety staff, restaurant owners and innkeepers.
- Caoyu Village’s collective income exceeded 1.5 million yuan in 2025.
- One local restaurant reported more than 500,000 yuan in summer revenue.
- Haixiwan hosted an East China surfing invitational in 2024, drawing participants and visitors from New Zealand, Germany and France.
Why it matters
This is rural revitalization with a wetsuit on. The village is no longer relying only on fishing-related livelihoods; the beach itself has become an economic asset, with lessons, equipment rental, cafés, restaurants and accommodation filling in around the waves.
The important change is not simply that more people are surfing. It is that a seasonal attraction has created several ways for residents to earn money close to home. A coach can teach in the water, a café can serve visitors watching from the shore, and a former city-based business owner can return to run a restaurant. That spreads the benefit beyond the surf base.
Cangnan’s figures also show the scale now attached to the experiment: 8.05 billion yuan in tourism income across the coast during the first half of 2026, alongside 3.59 million visitors. But the report does not show how much of that total comes directly from surfing, or whether demand will hold beyond the busiest summer months. The next test is whether the wave economy can keep villages busy after the holiday crowds thin out.
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