Innovative use of resources brings change to southern Hainan

At their family workshop, surrounded by beautiful flowering plants and tall betel trees, middle-aged Ji Shuying skillfully stirs medicinal herbal mixtures —well-proportioned lard, wormwood, mint, lemon, rose and caulis spatholobi — and then pours the liquid into molds with traditional Chinese Li-style designs.

In about an hour, a dozen fragrant bars of soap are ready.

Ji, of the Chinese Li ethnic group in Baoting county, on the southern end of Hainan, China's island province, makes about 100 bars of soap per day, each weighing 100 grams. For the effort, she is paid 200 yuan ($29) by the rural cooperative of Zadong village, where she lives with her family.