The arrival of the developers and tourists has seen locals returning to Moudao, ridding the town of its reputation as a factory for migrant workers.

Yang Min was just 14 when she headed to Guangzhou, Guangdong province, where she worked more than 10 hours a day in a shoe factory, earning 1,000 yuan a month. After more than a decade away, she and her husband returned last year and opened a barbershop.

"East or West, home is best! My hometown is certainly better than anywhere else for me. No matter how long I stayed away, I had to come back to be with my parents and son," Yang said, adding that the scale of the town's development potential made her more determined to return.

Since the barbershop opened in May 2, the average business volume has reached 2,000 yuan a day, in contrast to a shop the couple owned in Wenzhou, Zhejiang province, where daily takings ranged from several hundred yuan to more than 1,000.

Xiong Chuntao was delighted and relieved when her youngest son returned to Moudao after 23 years.

"I was too lonely and troubled by mental anxiety because I missed my two sons. Once, I didn't have any contact with them for more than two years. I didn't eat regularly and felt low every day. My mental anxiety evaporated completely after my younger son returned last year," said the 81-year-old.

Her son, now 63, can easily make 150 yuan a day through casual work.

With tourists crowding in, the senior has started a vegetable retail business: "My vegetables are very popular. People say they like them because we don't use chemical fertilizers. Before, if we had more vegetables than we could eat, we used them to feed the pigs."

Zhang Yuanjun's wife has a heart condition and his father is paralyzed, so like Xiong, he sells vegetables in the town.

"No matter what you plant on your farmland now, it can be changed into money because the tourists like all sorts of vegetables," said the 40-year-old, who plans to start a chicken farm next year to cash in on a rise in the price of locally raised birds.

Chicken meat has jumped to 15 yuan a kilogram, from less than 10 yuan in 2011, before the developers were brought in.

The local government has spent more than 1.7 million yuan to build a market where 300 of the more than 500 booths are set aside for farmers such as Xiong and Zhang, who are not charged for use of the facilities.

Wang, the mayor, said locals have opened more than 3,000 businesses, including hotels and restaurants, and more than 30,000 jobs have been created.

The improved employment opportunities have seen many former residents return to the town, and statistics supplied by the Moudao Primary School show that the proportion of left-behind children at the school has fallen to 17.4% from 47.5% in 2014.