Fruit planted in the gardens not only includes that found locally, such as peaches, navel oranges and red bayberries, but also some newly introduced varieties, including pitayas, watermelons and grapes, Zhou said.

"We also built a restaurant, cleaned the ponds and bred fish in them, so that in addition to harvesting fruit, tourists can fish and have meals in the countryside," he added.

Zou Shirong, director of the cooperative, said the venture was established in 2016 and was joined by 108 of the 242 households in the village－nearly all the impoverished families in Gufang at the time.

The 38-year-old also helped launch the cooperative. Born and raised in Gufang, he went in search of work in his late teens and became a successful businessman in Guangdong province before being invited by village officials to return home to start the cooperative and "build a new countryside".

"We rented 700 mu (46 hectares) of farmland and 3,000 mu of land in hilly areas, on which we constructed greenhouses for fruit, as well as flowers, vegetables and aquaculture bases," he said.

"We also hired villagers to work in the greenhouses and restaurant, enabling them to have two incomes－that from renting land to the cooperative and also from the salaries they earn by working for cooperative businesses. All these earnings can amount to more than 2,000 yuan a month per head," he said.

With red bayberries ripening from March to May, peaches and grapes from June to August, kiwi fruits in September, pitaya in October and navel oranges in November and December, the fruit gardens are attractive to tourists nearly all the year around. They are known affectionately by villagers as "four-season orchards".

Zhou said the village now attracts 10,000 tourists each month, mainly from Huichang county. At peak times such as holidays, the number can exceed 2,000 a day, with the restaurant owned by the cooperative making as much as 150,000 yuan per month.

The development of rural tourism has brought not only profit but also fame to Gufang.

In April 2018, it was listed as one of the most beautiful villages in Jiangxi. At the end of that year, it was also recognized by the province as a 3A spot for rural tourism on a five-level grading system.

To better cater to the soaring number of visitors, a tourist service center was built near the village entrance.

Zhou said the villagers are also planting more red bayberry trees, because the number of tourists is rising so quickly that there is not enough fruit for them to pick.