A woman tidies up a room in a sci-fi style homestay in Kedu Town of Pingtang County, southwest China's Guizhou Province on Feb. 19, 2025. In 2007, Pingtang County launched a relocation program that involved 6,653 rural residents from Kedu and Tangbian townships. The program was implemented in order to prepare for the construction of the FAST (Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope), also known as the "China Sky Eye." Located in a naturally deep and round karst depression in Guizhou, FAST was completed in 2016 and started formal operations in 2020. (Xinhua/Liu Xu)
Kedu Township started a plan to transform itself into an astronomy-themed town from September 2015, taking advantage of its proximity to the FAST. Many relocated rural residents have found jobs or started their own businesses in the town.
Today's Kedu Town is full of sense of science, technology and future with landmarks such as experience planetarium, time tower, interstellar community, astronomical time village and others. Since the launch of the "China Sky Eye," Kedu Township, the astronomy-themed little town nestled in mountains, has received more than 28.5 million tourists with a comprehensive tourism revenue exceeding 26 billion yuan (about 3.59 billion U.S. dollars).