Making poverty history in one of China's poorest provinces

Chengxian villager Su Yanyan shows her online store on her smartphone. Many local famers have improved their standards of living through e-commerce. Xiao Zhengqiang/Xinhua

Online opportunities

Until recently, Zeng Xueyi didn't know how to access online shopping portals on his low-end smartphone. Since his teenage years, the 60-year-old resident of Chengxian county in the city of Longnan, has earned a living by raising honeybees and selling the honey to his neighbors.

Last year, a concrete road was built to link Zeng's remote mountain village with a small road about two-hours away that connects with a major highway. The improved communications and transportation links convinced Zeng to expand his business. Now, after a few lessons from his adopted son on how to use the internet, he is attempting to exploit e-commerce opportunities via online dealers.

In the old days Zeng earned about 0.5 yuan for each kilogram of honey he produced, but now the same amount sells for 50 to 80 yuan via online channels. Two traditional hives have housed Zeng's bees for the majority of his career, but seeking improved productivity he has taken out a small loan from an aid program and invested in 20 modern hives, which will allow him to raise more bees.

He has also contacted local e-commerce coaches - mostly college graduates who have been assigned to work as assistant village leaders - for advice about getting his produce to a wider audience.

"When we paved the road and gave them a new direction, the villagers' enthusiasm was stimulated," said Diao, the researcher. "They will seek every opportunity to improve their lives. Poverty in the past never destroyed their hopes of prosperity in the future."

Gu Qing, assistant country director of poverty, equity and governance at the United Nations Development Programme in China, said new measures must be devised to tackle the fundamental problems.

"To a certain extent, poverty reduction is like picking fruit on a tree. The low-hanging fruits of poverty-reduction have already been picked, so now we need to pick the high-hanging fruits and address the hardcore issues of poverty," she said.

While Fang Najia is hoping her family's prospects will further improve when her daughter graduates from college, Zeng Xueyi is still faced with uncertainty.

He has collected his honey harvest twice since summer began, but so far he hasn't been approached by middlemen from online sales channels.

"Making a living like this isn't as easy as it appears, but I will persevere - it's the new way," he said.