'Acrobatic town' taps into proud heritage to boost tourism

For the nine-year compulsory education, local primary and middle schools send teachers to Hu's troupe to teach the children.

Li Enjie, former head of the China Acrobatics Troupe, said during a seminar in Linquan last year that such a situation is faced by acrobatic troupes across the country.

"Hard as my business is, the situation is not always bad, because it shows that people now have more choices for their career and life thanks to the improving living conditions," says Hu.

As there are still lots of people engaged in the business, the Linquan county government has built a massive area of ancient-style buildings and named it the "Town of Acrobatics" in the hope of developing tourism and to give the performers more opportunities to show off their acrobatics skills, according to local officials.