Bailuyuan folk village drew 120,000 visitors on opening day — it was rubble within 4 years

Bailuyuan Folk Culture Village opened on May 1, 2016, in Tianjiapo village near Xi'an, riding the popularity of the novel and TV adaptation 'White Deer Plain' — the same plateau the story was set on. It drew a reported 120,000 visitors on opening day alone. The developer, Shaanxi Weishui Culture Industry Investment, had planned a ¥350 million project across 1,265 mu, but county government records later showed only about ¥70 million was actually invested and only roughly 70 mu — a first phase — was ever built.

Visitor numbers began falling as early as the first Spring Festival after opening, in 2017. Several near-identical Guanzhong folk-themed attractions opened on the same plateau, splitting a crowd that had come for the novelty of one village rather than loyalty to the place. The project also sat on rural collective land leased in violation of China's land-management rules; in December 2016 Lantian County's top official was formally reprimanded by the province partly over the illegal land use, which blocked any fix. The operating company changed twice with no turnaround.

By August 2019, only three vendors remained operating out of what had been a full village of shops; one reported earning just ¥90 in sales over more than half a year. A demolition notice was posted in March 2020, with teardown completed within the month. The site was later earmarked for a Blue City Group mixed-use redevelopment, unrelated to the folk-village concept.