Ye says the gallery that bears her name is bringing more happiness to her life.

"I don't expect to earn money from the gallery. All I want is that visitors can admire ordinary people's artworks," she says.

Ge, who didn't agree with Cong's approach at first, is now an active participant in the art project."With the improvement of the village, more people are willing to join, which is making the environment even better."

The influence of art on Gejia went beyond Cong's expectations.

"I always believed that every person has artistic creativity, but I didn't know that rural farmers could be so creative and imaginative," he says.

Cong and his students spent less than two months in Gejia last year, but the art project continues without them.

"When we returned to Beijing, the villagers offered ideas in a WeChat group and we gave them advice about how to implement them,"Cong says, adding that the continuity proved that involving local residents in art designs could generate development from inside a village.