Abstract: Based on the investigation of poverty alleviation in border villages, this paper analyzed the influencing factors and reality of the absence of people and elites in border villages, as well as the challenges of village hollowing out and population structure imbalance to rural revitalization, and cited the key role of the city returns elite in rural revitalization from two aspects of game theory and practical cases. Based on the value orientation of urban return, it puts forward the path of leading the city returns elite to revitalize rural areas from the aspects of financial support, policy guarantee, basic planning, industrial innovation, so as to help rural revitalization and development in remote areas in the new era.

Key words: rural revitalization, border areas, the city returns elite, complement