E-commerce fuels village reboot in Shanxi

Like their web-savvy urban counterparts, young villagers in the remote Quting township of Hongtong county in North China's Shanxi province, are fond of livestreaming, too. But they're not just doing it for fun.

On Friday morning, two young broadcasters sat in front of a well-lighted table with an array of agricultural products on display, enthusiastically speaking to their phone cameras while sipping locally brewed vinegar from a bowl.

They were livestreaming on short video-sharing platform Kuaishou, from the ecommerce service station of Quting township, promoting and selling local produce to consumers across the country.

Quting township of Hongtong county established the e-commerce service station in November. The 300-square-meter station displays 230-odd local agricultural products.

Villagers can use it for free.

"We sold over 60,000 yuan ($8580) worth of products every day before and during the past Dragon Boat Festival," said Fan Ding, Party chief of the town, who suggested setting up an e-commerce service station after seeing many in South China's Xiamen city on a business trip last year.

The reason behind the Party chief's decision was to expand sales channels for local produce and increasing farmers' income by tapping e-commerce.

"Though our farmers are good at what they do but their produce was sold in bulk at low prices and some even couldn't sell off their produce for a lack of distribution channels," Fan said.