E-commerce lets a village thrive

A willow weaved craft is among the exhibits on show at the willow weaving cultural heritage center near Xuezhuang village in Shandong province.[Photo by Lu Peng/Xinhua]

Xuezhuang, a village in southern Shandong province, is well-known for its willow products. Now, the internet is letting its residents, including its young people, make a decent living. Chen Nan reports.

As the temperature rises to 35 C in the early afternoon, Liu Yuesheng places another finished pet basket on the pile in his home, which is almost touching the ceiling. And despite sweat streaming down his face, he is working on weaving a willow cushion.

Born and raised in a small village called Xuezhuang, located in Tancheng county, 90 kilometers from Linyi city, in southern Shandong province, Liu, 48, has been weaving willow since young.

He says that the people of the village have been planting willow trees and weaving willow straw into various products－from furniture to decorations－for generations.

The villagers never made much money from their willow products until the village comprising around 1,000 people－led by pioneers like Liu－discovered Taobao, an online shopping platform of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, in 2011.

Now, with four online stores on Taobao.com and one store on Alibaba's business-to-consumer site Tmall, Liu has sold thousands of products nationwide with yearly income crossing 4 million yuan ($601,000).