Innovative use of resources brings change to southern Hainan

"I used to rush about without earning money," said one resident, Chen Feng. "Now we can earn enough at home through engaging ourselves in the diversified business operations introduced by the poverty alleviation teams sent by the county government."

"My children now go to school free of tuition, and the government provides a living allowance every semester. Although I am 45 years old, I am studying horticulture at a local college as a part-time student," Chen said.

People like Chen increasingly found in villages around Baoting. They not only work hard with their businesses but are also enthusiastic about learning practical skills, broadening their vision and building their minds.

The training courses arranged by the county government, local companies and night schools have played a positive role in teaching practical skills for eco-friendly farming, marketing and management, and the upgrading of the farmers' vision and mindset as well, said Zhou of the local poverty alleviation office.

Gao Jun, a 44-year-old farmer from Qianjin village, earned little for years because of poor management of his fields and his refusal to exchange ideas with people around him. Now he is an expert on growing longan and pepper and is good at scientific growing and marketing of crops. Poverty-alleviation officials had successfully persuaded him to attend training courses and night school classes, and those made all the difference.

From 2016 to the end of last year, Baoting received 3.76 million tourists from home and abroad, bringing in 289 million yuan. More than 7,500 villagers from once poor families were engaged in the growing tourism business and earned additional income to improve their daily lives, said a report from the county government.

The report noted that from 2016 to 2018, Baoting injected a total of 66.6 million yuan as poverty reduction funds, which helped 6,587 households, or 25,951 local residents, to escape extreme poverty. To date, all its 44 poverty-stricken villages have left the poverty list.

Attracted by the changes in her hometown, Zajin village, 30-year-old Lin Wei quit her job at a travel agency in Sanya two years ago and started a homestay service offering an original Li-style experience — making Li food, dancing, playing Li musical instruments and growing and harvesting farm produce.

Lin is one of the young generation who have keenly realized the value and appeal of Li culture, with its characteristic rural leisure.

Cheng Tianfu, chairman of the Binlanggu Li & Miao Culture Tourism Zone, said: "In one poverty alleviation effort, we built a fruit market street in the zone, providing 130 stands free of charge to nearby villagers to sell fruit grown in their own fields. We also encouraged local farmers to grow flowers, plants and fruit trees and purchase them at a price higher than market price to beautify the tourist zone."

Cheng said as a step to help the poor and pass on the precious Li culture and skills, his company has invited a number of intangible Li cultural heritage inheritors and weaving craftsmen from Baoting and other areas of the island to demonstrate the traditional art of brocade weaving — "a living fossil" of Chinese weaving history — and pay them on a monthly basis.

Baoting Party Chief Wang Yuzheng said Baoting will build more tourism infrastructure, more ecological tourism projects and more beautiful villages and will promote integration of all industries and trade to help turn Baoting into an international tropical mountain tourism city, an international rain forest healthcare garden, a demonstration and experience base for the Li and Miao cultures and a special-feature tropical agriculture base.

A number of new eco-tourism projects are also unfolding a promising tomorrow — more jobs, growing income and a happier life — for villagers in Baoting.

They include a national tropical rain forest park that puts one-seventh of Hainan Island's land area under comprehensive ecological protection, and a new rainforest tourism zone, a combination of natural landscapes with multiple entertainment facilities, to be jointly built by a local company and US Discovery Communications with a total investment of 5 billion yuan.