China story: Poverty-stricken village finds key to prosperity

Although suitable for planting coffee, Xinzhai Village in west Yunnan was once in deep poverty. Thanks to its advantageous natural conditions and the strong leadership of local government, the village now finds the key to prosperity and is dubbed the “No. 1 Coffee Planting Village” in China.

Located in west Yunnan’s Baoshan City, Xinzhai Village sits in the Lujiangba valley where the Nu River runs through. With sufficient sunshine and long frost-free season, the Lujiangba valley boasts good conditions for planting coffee and has been a main coffee producing area in Yunnan. However, because of the poor infrastructure and the lack of advanced coffee-planting methods, Xinzhai villagers were blocked from development in the past. 

To promote the development of Xinzhai and lift the poor population in the village out of poverty, local government then improved infrastructures and sent skilled coffee-planting technicians to the village. With unified coffee species, advanced planting and processing technologies, the villagers found the key to becoming rich. Besides planting coffee, they have also blazed another development path——tourism. They are building the village into a tourist destination with local flavor. Now, there are various tourist spots in the village, like the coffee museum and the coffee cultural plaza. Since 2015, the village has held several coffee-related festivals and sports events and has received an increasing number of tourists. 

Editor: Wang Shixue