Objective/Meaning  By deeply analyzing the development mechanism of rural tourism characteristic town, and evaluating the factors such as resource endowment, cultural characteristics, and ecological environment, the study aimed to explore a long-term, stable and sustainable development path.

Methods/Procedures  By using the methods of literature research, case study and participation observation, aiming at the typical case of “Pingnan Characteristic Town in Tianshui City”, the current development status of characteristic towns was analyzed, the practical problems of construction were summarized, and then the corresponding development paths were put forward.

Results/Conclusions  The results showed that at present, the characteristic towns were facing the problems such as significant homogenization, weakening and limited scale of characteristic industries, unreasonable regional planning, lagging behind in cultural innovation and brand construction, singularization of tourism products and services, imperfect infrastructure and transportation system, and insufficient integration depth of digital-enabled rural tourism. In view of the existing problems of characteristic towns, it was suggested to excavate the characteristic resources to create the differentiated tourism products, develop the rural tourism industry to help farmers increase their income, optimize the layout mechanism and strengthen the integration and innovation of culture and tourism; and build a digital service system to promote the sustainable development of rural tourism characteristic towns.