Cub reporters trace the weight of a reservoir on a rural study tour in Mengyin county

"The water we drink comes from here," a cub reporter said to a classmate on Nov 8, standing in front of an exhibition board at the Yunmeng Pearl exhibition hall in Mengyin county, Linyi in East China's Shandong province.

Since Langya News launched its 2026 "rural revitalization walk in Yimeng" reporting program for young reporters on Oct 24, more than 1,000 children have visited the Yunmeng Pearl scenic area in batches, studying reservoir development and rural change at the exhibition hall, interviewing villagers and taking what amounts to a roving class on rural revitalization beside Yunmeng Lake.

The Yunmeng Pearl eco-tourism resort, in the southwest of the Yunmeng Lake ecological zone, combines sightseeing, holiday health care, angling, water sports and study programs. For many of the children it was their first close look at the lake. "Much of the tap water used by households across Linyi is pumped from here, treated and sent on. Yunmeng Lake is Linyi's big water vat," a teacher told them at the water's edge.

Divided into groups, the young reporters went into nearby villages to match what they had heard about protecting the water source with what they could see. One child asked an elderly villager sunning herself whether the village had streetlights when she was young. "No streetlights — you went out in the dark and got mud on your shoes when it rained," the woman replied. What about now? She pointed at the concrete road and the new lamps: "Bright now. We don't need a torch to visit neighbors."

Back at the exhibition hall, old photographs, records of resettled residents and the history of the reservoir's development slowed the children down. A guide explained that villages around the lake had given up land and moved to keep the water clean, and that rural revitalization here could not follow the old path of "pollute first, clean up later" but had to protect the water and raise incomes at the same time. Asked how villagers earned a living, the guide pointed to five words on the board — peaches, fish, bees, herbs and lotus root — and said some villages had also taken up eco-tourism: "Protect the lake, then earn from clear water and green hills."

In the afternoon the group visited Mengle World, a pet-themed park where they met alpacas, miniature horses and sika deer, and dug sweet potatoes in a field. On the bus home several had already started writing. "Today I learned that rural areas are not backward places," one wrote.

"Yunmeng Pearl is not just a scenic area. Behind it is the story of reservoir development, of what resettled residents gave up, and of rural revitalization," a manager at the resort said. The program runs until Nov 17.

Editor：韩蒙蒙