Poverty alleviation gains momentum in Qingyuan's Lianzhang

Qingyuan, a city in Guangdong province known as the backyard garden of the Pearl River Delta, has devoted great efforts in promoting tourism and rural revitalization in recent years.

Lianzhang village, which used to be one of the most impoverished villages in Lianjiangkou township in Qingyuan, has made significant achievements in its poverty alleviation efforts, improving people's livelihoods in the past three years. The village is expected to become a demonstration area for targeted poverty alleviation in China.

Covering a total area of 31.83 square kilometers, Lianzhang village only has about 900 mu (60 hectares) of arable land, while its forest area is more than 43,000 mu (2866.67 hectares).

In order to make full use of its abundant forest resources, the village has focused on the development of its under-forest economy, such as cultivating valuable medical herbs like lingzhi mushrooms and dendrobe. Free training of planting technologies has also been offered to villagers.

"The village has attached great attention to ecological protection. Cutting down trees is no longer allowed in the village. Also, the industries we introduced into the village must be pollution-free," said Lu Feihong, secretary of the Party branch of Lianzhang village.

A modern agricultural scientific demonstration park, upgraded from the original vegetable greenhouses in the village, is expected to be put into operation in October. The area of advanced greenhouses in the park has increased to 74 mu.

The greenhouses have applied soilless cultivation and are fully automated so that farmers only need to turn on the machines every day.

"The yield per mu in the greenhouses in 10 times higher than before," said Lu.

Aiming to pushing forward targeted poverty alleviation efforts, a new model integrating agriculture, industry, and poverty alleviation has been launched in the village. A factory for the assembly and processing of toys, whose construction started in June 2017, was put into operation in August the same year.

Currently, the factory has employed more than 80 staff members and the number will exceed over 100 during peak seasons.

"I became a worker here in 2017 and I've seen great changes in the village. Many young people, who used to earn their incomes in other cities, have resigned at those jobs to work here. The average salary here is about 2,400 yuan ($338.29) to 2,500 yuan every month," said Zeng Chunlan, a worker at the factory.

"The factory has solved the problem of left-behind children. The job here allows me to take care of my child, who is in grade three. Starting from this year, a school bus service has been available, which is very convenient," added Zeng.