An ancient road carries a thousand years of tea fragrance, and a sports event links the profound friendship between Guangdong and Guangxi… At 5:10 p.m. on November 25, the opening ceremony of the 2025 “Yixin Cup” Village PA Pickleball Tournament in the Tea-Boat Ancient Road Basin of Fengkai County, sponsored by the CPC Fengkai County Committee and Fengkai County People’s Government, was held at Fengkai County Sports Park (Guangxin Cultural Park).
The tournament attracted more than 600 participants from 42 villages across 8 counties in 3 cities of Guangdong and Guangxi, including Cangwu County, Wanxiu District and Longxu District of Wuzhou City in Guangxi, Yuncheng District and Yunan County of Yunfu City, Gaoyao District and Deqing County of Zhaoqing City, as well as Fengkai County itself. Following the 2025 3rd Greater Bay Area West (Zhaoqing Fengkai-Wuzhou Cangwu) “Guangdong-Guangxi Cycling Bond • Tea-Boat Ancient Road” 100km Cycling Event themed “Cycling the Tea-Boat Ancient Post Road • Building Guangdong-Guangxi Friendship Together” held on November 16, this tournament has become another brilliant new calling card for Fengkai County to build high-quality coordinated cultural and tourism development in the Xijiang Economic Belt.
On the night of the opening ceremony, the agricultural and sideline products sales and tasting area at Fengkai County Sports Park became a popular highlight. More than 30 kinds of geographical indication products such as Fengkai Xinghua chicken, Niudali drinks, Cangwu Liubao tea and imperial mandarins were showcased collectively. Participants and tourists made purchases through online live-streaming orders and other channels. To support rural revitalization, Guangdong Yixin Agricultural Technology Co., Ltd. demonstrated its responsibility. As the strategic partner of the tournament, relying on its technological advantages, it provided agricultural technology and agricultural product support to farmers and cultural tourism enterprises along the route, driving the precise flow of agricultural technology to irrigate rural industries and realizing the dual-wheel drive of “agriculture + cultural tourism”.
A relevant person in charge of Fengkai County Sports Development Center introduced that this competition is the first cross-regional large-scale sports event of Village PA Pickleball held in the Tea-Boat Ancient Road Basin of Guangdong and Guangxi, lasting for 4 days from November 25 to 28. The overall IP of the competition consists of three major sections: “a competition venue, a corridor displaying rural revitalization achievements, and an agricultural and sideline products sales and tasting area”. It is understood that with pickleball as the carrier and “sports + tourism + culture” as the core, the event connects characteristic nodes such as tea towns, ancient towns, ancient wharves and ecological corridors in the Tea-Boat Ancient Road Basin, so as to promote the in-depth integration of sports-tourism integration and rural revitalization development in the basin, and strive to create a new brilliant calling card for Fengkai’s cultural and tourism development featuring coordinated regional linkage in the Xijiang Economic Belt.
Drinking from the same river and discussing cooperation plans together. “The Tea-Boat Ancient Road is a shared cultural memory of Guangdong and Guangxi, and the Village PA Pickleball Tournament has brought history to life,” said a person in charge of Fengkai County’s culture, radio, television, tourism and sports department. This sports event themed “Yixin Cup Village PA Pickleball Tournament in the Tea-Boat Ancient Road Basin” is not only a test of endurance and a cooperation of friendship, but also organically integrates the thousand-year-old commercial and cultural context with modern cultural and tourism resources through sports competitions, providing a brand-new carrier for Guangdong and Guangxi to deepen regional cooperation and promote the integrated development of agriculture, culture, tourism and sports.
As a Guangdong Provincial All-for-One Tourism Demonstration Zone and a selected “pilot county for advancing the integrated development of agriculture, culture and tourism on a county-wide basis”, in recent years, Fengkai County has systematically integrated the cultural and tourism resources along the Tea-Boat Ancient Road through pickleball events, and the brand influence of geographical indication products such as Liubao tea, Xinghua chicken and Yunan yellow peel has been significantly enhanced. “A single event has activated an economic belt,” said a relevant leader of Fengkai County. In the future, the 8 counties (districts) in 3 cities of Guangdong and Guangxi will implement the spirit of the forum attended by the secretaries of the municipal Party committees of Wuzhou, Zhaoqing and Yunfu, strengthen the 15th Five-Year Plan and special plans for agriculture, culture and tourism, continue to promote the main theme of “Guangdong and Guangxi are one family”, upgrade the “Tea-Boat Ancient Road Basin Village PA Pickleball Tournament” into a national brand event, and extend it to fields such as research and study tours and health preservation. It will build a diversified industrial chain of “sports events + cultural tourism + characteristic agriculture”, promote the high-quality and efficient development of local agriculture, make rural areas livable and suitable for business, and increase farmers’ income and prosperity, striving to create another brilliant calling card for the high-quality development of cultural and tourism with coordinated regional linkage in the Xijiang Economic Belt and empower the “Hundred Counties, Thousand Towns and Ten Thousand Villages High-quality Development Project”.
It is understood that since the promotion of pickleball in 2023, people can be seen playing pickleball at sports venues in all towns (streets), villages (communities) and schools in Fengkai County, and pickleball is deeply loved by the local people. According to statistics, there are currently about 18,000 pickleball enthusiasts in the county. At the same time, Fengkai County has built a sports park themed on pickleball with 8 standard pickleball courts. In 2025, it promoted pickleball into communities, campuses and government agencies, and built 43 new pickleball courts. In terms of event organization, it has successfully held the 2024 Greater Bay Area (Zhaoqing • Fengkai) Rural Revitalization “Xinghua Hotel Cup” Pickleball Open, the characteristic “Women’s Cup” Pickleball Tournaments for two consecutive years in 2024 and 2025, the 2025 Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Staff Pickleball Zhaoqing Selection Competition and Guangdong-Guangxi Cooperation Staff Pickleball Invitational Tournament, the 2025 Pickleball Sports Equipment Expo (Zhaoqing • Fengkai Station) and Sports Carnival, and the 2025 3rd Greater Bay Area West (Zhaoqing Fengkai-Wuzhou Cangwu) “Guangdong-Guangxi Cycling Bond • Tea-Boat Ancient Road” 100km Cycling Event. All these events have been fully affirmed and highly praised by pickleball enthusiasts at home and abroad and achieved good social effects. In 2026, Fengkai will host provincial and national-level pickleball events.
