The 60th Charity Tour Match! Shenzhen Street Super Expands to Pingyuan, Orange Fragrance Fills the Green Field

Reported by Wang Wei and intern Li Xin. The northeastern mountainous city of Pingyuan County in Guangdong enjoys a warm winter. On December 18, the 60th Shenzhen Street Super “Hundreds, Thousands, and Tens of Thousands Project” charity tour match passionately kicked off on the green field of Chengnan Middle School in Pingyuan County, Meizhou City. On the field, the Shenzhen Street Super star team, led by former Chinese national players Hu Zhijun, Li Jianhua, and Li Haiqiang, conducted a unique public welfare football training session for children; off the field, the provincial intangible cultural heritage “Pingyuan Boat Lantern” danced gracefully, the “Falling Coins” rhythm was lively, and the Pingyuan navel orange sales booths were bustling with people.

This event, combining sporting passion, cultural heritage, and agricultural support, not only marks a milestone as the 60th match of the Shenzhen Street Super charity tour but also injects strong momentum into Pingyuan County’s football development and rural revitalization through football as the link. From the charitable legacy on the green field to enthusiastic calls in the agricultural livestream, from nurturing football talents to the online popularity of local specialty products, the mutual engagement between Shenzhen Street Super and Pingyuan writes a vivid chapter of integrated development across “sports + cultural tourism + industry.”

“Reaching the 60th charity tour match is not easy. I feel that 60 matches mark a new starting point, and things will get even more exciting,” former national player Li Jianhua expressed the original intention and persistence of the Shenzhen Street Super charity tour. Since its launch in 2023, this football-based public welfare initiative has covered 44 regions nationwide, reaching 50 counties, towns, and villages including Zunyi in Guizhou and Jiujiang in Jiangxi, conducting 59 charity matches, training over 3,000 youths, and donating football equipment worth 2.37 million yuan. Choosing Meizhou’s Pingyuan County for the 60th match precisely responds to the football development needs of the tri-province border area of Guangdong, Fujian, and Jiangxi.

Pingyuan County, under the jurisdiction of Meizhou City in Guangdong Province, is located in the northeast of Guangdong at the junction of Guangdong, Fujian, and Jiangxi provinces and is known as the “Hometown of Navel Oranges” in Guangdong. The event’s location in Pingyuan was not a coincidence but a proactive response by Shenzhen Street Super to Guangdong’s “Hundreds of Counties, Thousands of Towns, and Tens of Thousands of Villages High-Quality Development Project” and a deepening practice of empowering county development through sports. Yuan Lin, general manager of Shenzhen Street Super Cultural Development Co., Ltd. and former Shenzhen Football Club player, admitted: “Initially, we just wanted to bring the joy of football to rural children, but as we progressed, we realized that the countryside needed more than just a game; it needed a comprehensive development solution.” From simply delivering football matches and equipment to now integrating charity training, intangible cultural heritage performances, cultural tourism promotion, and agricultural livestreaming, Shenzhen Street Super’s charitable scope keeps expanding, with the 60th Pingyuan event continuing the “enjoying cultural tourism together with Street Super” integrated model.

For Pingyuan, this milestone event also brought development opportunities. During the event, Pingyuan launched exclusive travel discounts for Shenzhen tourists and simultaneously introduced a special “Travel Orange” route combining navel orange picking with revolutionary sites, encouraging spectators to convert into tourism consumers.

The enthusiastic atmosphere inside and outside the venue confirmed the profound impact of this milestone event. On the green field of Chengnan Middle School, teachers, students, and villagers stopped to watch, and thunderous applause followed every brilliant pass and shot; during the charity training session, football legends Hu Zhijun and Li Haiqiang personally taught children ball control and passing techniques. “Being with the stars, learning how to dribble and pass from them, strengthened my determination to study hard,” said Liu Xinyu, a first-year student at Chengnan Middle School, echoing the feelings of many youths. Former national player Li Haiqiang deeply felt: “Having reached 60 matches, what we aim for is to ignite children’s passion for football, which is crucial for the inheritance of football in Guangdong.”

The arrival of Shenzhen Street Super has injected long-awaited enthusiasm into Pingyuan football. Lai Chaohua, deputy principal of Pingyuan County Amateur Sports School, described Pingyuan football’s development trajectory: “Previously, Pingyuan football ranked near the bottom in Meizhou. Over the years, thanks to the efforts of generations of Pingyuan football enthusiasts, our five-a-side football has achieved great results and is no longer among the last in Meizhou.” Behind this progress lies Pingyuan County’s persistent commitment to football development.

Li Sheng, deputy head of Pingyuan County’s Propaganda Department and director of the County Bureau of Culture, Radio, Tourism, and Sports, introduced that in recent years, Pingyuan has deepened the “Double Youth” project to firmly build a foundation of youth football talent. By forming four youth football teams totaling 80 players, they have established a complete talent ladder; innovatively launched diversified training modes such as “teaching sent to schools,” winter and summer holiday sports charity training classes, and football training sites in primary and secondary schools, enabling football training to reach more youths; successfully hosted the first Meizhou Youth Football League qualifiers and the Pingyuan Youth Football League, as well as the “Youth Flying High on May Fourth” football competition, using competitions to train players, enhancing skills, and creating a strong football atmosphere.

Regarding mass football participation, Pingyuan County, aligning with Meizhou’s plan to build a national key football city, carefully organized branded events like the “Kehua Tong Optoelectronics Cup” and the “Zhongyuan Energy New Year Cup.” Notably, Pingyuan Weihua Team won the monthly championship at the 2023 Guangdong Meizhou (Rural Commercial Bank · Li Huitang Cup) Five-a-side Football Championship in Pingyuan, marking a historic breakthrough. For venue support, Pingyuan has upgraded and renovated multiple sites including the county stadium and Chengnan Middle School football field, opening them fully free of charge to the public, providing a solid foundation for football activities.

Despite some progress, Pingyuan football still faces many challenges. One issue is the limited number of football coach positions. “Among the eleven positions at Pingyuan Amateur Sports School, only three are football coaches, while schools in Wuhua and Meixian have over a dozen football coaches. Due to the small staff, it’s very difficult to form a stable talent ladder,” said Lai Chaohua. The shortage of football coaches restricts Pingyuan football’s development. “When playing in city games, it’s hard for us to catch up with other counties largely because we lack a stable talent ladder.”

Moreover, most football coaches in schools are part-time physical education teachers who must handle heavy teaching loads, making it difficult to fully dedicate themselves to football coaching.

The arrival of Shenzhen Street Super has brought a turning point in alleviating these difficulties. The star power of football legends greatly boosted Pingyuan youths’ enthusiasm for football. Lai Chaohua stated: “After the Street Super stars came, Pingyuan children found watching them play very interesting and actively wanted to learn football, which gave them a clear direction to persist.” In the charity training sessions, the legends not only taught skills but also conveyed the football spirit of always striving to win. Students Lin Huiqi, Xie Yahan, and Yao Jinglin from Chengnan Middle School said, “Although the Shenzhen Street Super charity training was short, I directly felt the charm of football and planted a seed in my heart to continue playing football.”

If football charity brought spiritual motivation to Pingyuan, then “football + agricultural support” injected material vitality into local rural revitalization. At the cliffside homestay in Nantai Wofo Mountain Scenic Area, Pingyuan, football legends Hu Zhijun, Yuan Lin, and Li Jianhua entered the agricultural support livestream room, becoming hosts to promote Pingyuan navel oranges and other specialty products, vividly showcasing the agricultural support aspect of this charity tour.

Pingyuan’s mild climate, abundant rainfall, and rich fertile land are perfectly suited for navel orange cultivation. As one of Pingyuan’s four major agricultural pillars, the navel orange plantation covers 100,000 mu and is recognized as a Chinese national geographical indication product. However, limited sales channels and insufficient brand influence have long restricted industry growth. Shenzhen Street Super precisely met this need by using “purchase instead of donation” and livestream sales methods.

Inside the livestream room, the legends interacted to attract viewers, who enthusiastically placed orders, selling out 10,000 jin of Pingyuan navel oranges in a short time. Outside the livestream, the Pingyuan intangible cultural heritage exhibition and agricultural product market ran simultaneously, creating a composite scene of “watching, experiencing, and consuming,” further enhancing the exposure of specialty products.

“We call this a combination of culture, sports, tourism, and agriculture. It may have started mainly with football, but as we develop, not only football and sports, but all aspects of agricultural support, culture, sports, and tourism can come together to enjoy Street Super and cultural tourism,” explained Yuan Lin. Li Jianhua added, “Many local people and the government now strongly support us, and we have gained recognition. I firmly believe our charity activities are very meaningful, and I personally enjoy being part of them.”

This “Hundreds, Thousands, and Tens of Thousands Charity Tour” has left a deep impression in Pingyuan, from the charitable legacy on the green field to the heartwarming sales in the livestream room. The Shenzhen Street Super charity tour is a vivid practice of Guangdong Province’s “Hundreds of Counties, Thousands of Towns, and Tens of Thousands of Villages High-Quality Development Project” in the sports field. The event reaches deep into counties, towns, and villages, building a bridge for cultural, industrial, and talent exchanges between urban and rural areas, exploring a sustainable development path of “event-driven traffic — scene experience — consumption conversion — charity feedback.” Under the backdrop of high-quality development, a systematic practice linking sports with cultural tourism, promoting consumption, and supporting revitalization continues to take shape through the Shenzhen Street Super charity tour process.