Plum flowers are in full bloom in Huzhou, East China's Zhejiang province. [Photo/WeChat account: huzhoufabu]

Huzhou in East China's Zhejiang province recently set a goal of increasing the revenue generated by rural tourism to above 15 billion yuan ($2.3 billion) by 2025.

The development of rural tourism is part of the government's broader push to increase the incomes of local residents and bolster common prosperity.

One way the city hopes to achieve this is by developing its homestay industry. It plans to introduce 20 headquarters of high-end homestays and build 100 rural museums, while bringing in 150 homestay service workers.

In addition, the local government will ramp up financial support for rural tourism development.

According to the agreement reached by the Huzhou branch of Agricultural Bank of China and the Huzhou municipal bureau of culture, radio, film and tourism, the bank will unveil a series of financial products targeting farmers with a minimum annual interest rate of 3.6 percent.

Farmers who play a leading role in developing tourism can apply for up to 2 million yuan in unsecured loans.

Huzhou recently launched a tourism festival themed on plum blossoms.

Places such as Yuanxiang Holiday Village, Moganshan Mountain, Oriental Plum Garden and Taihu Lake Longemont Paradise are some of the best places to admire them. Visitors whose names have the character "梅" (meaning "plum") will be exempt from admission fees to these places.

Plum flowers are in full bloom in Huzhou, East China's Zhejiang province. [Photo/WeChat account: huzhoufabu]