Innovative use of resources brings change to southern Hainan

Chen Xifeng, Ji's husband, helps do the packaging from time to time. They've earned about 5,000 yuan a month since early last year with the traditional Li-style soap, a figure the Chen family dared not dream of only a few years ago.

In response to the national plan to build beautiful villages and create more jobs for rural people, the Xiangshui town government, along with some farming households and the Hainan Hekou Agriculture Co, set up a cooperative early last year to make better use of local natural resources and traditional Li skills to support families that had recently escaped the poverty-stricken list, said Zhou Xianliang, director of the poverty alleviation office in Baoting.

"We provided free training to Ji and her village sisters," said Zhou Yan, general manager of the agriculture company. "Their handmade soaps are welcome in online shops."

Zhou said the cooperative will be supported in the cultivation of local flowers, medicinal herbs and tropical fruits, along with Li-style tourism products and services.

With an environment similar to that of Hawaii, picturesque Baoting covers 1,167 square kilometers. Lying at the golden latitude of 18-degrees north, it boasts world-class tropical ecological systems, lush primeval rain forests, serene valleys, waterfalls and springs, with forest coverage around 85 percent.

But for years, mountains, poor infrastructure and an economy based solely on agriculture held Baoting back. About 62 percent of its 167,800 people belong to the Li ethnic group — which traces its roots back 3,000 years. The Li were the first inhabitants of Hainan.

In 2002, Baoting was designated a national-level county for poverty alleviation and development, with 6,656 households officially registered as poverty-stricken in the national information database.

By 2019 standards, the household poverty line was 3,750 yuan in Hainan province, Zhou said.