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When entering into the Lvjiang village, the billboards of farmhouses are eye-catching. Touring cars parking on the roadside remind people that they are not in a remote village any more.
Zhang Huijun, a tourist from Dalian, said that she once was a teacher in Kuandian for 12 years. She still loves the place and came with three other retired colleagues to visit. "The scenery is so beautiful", she added.
Cai Qinghai, secretary of the village Party committee and director of the village, said, "Due to the lack of arable land, our village is poor. In 2007, the village borrowed as much as 500,000 yuan ($78,568). Arable land is less than 0.067 hectare per capita. In 2009, per capita income in this village was only 1900 yuan ($298.6). Many villagers chose to leave their hometown."
In 2007, a photography lover planted a stretch of rape flowers in the village to take photos here. When they uploaded the pictures on the Internet, more than 3,000 tourists were attracted to visit that year.
The big surprise encouraged local people to plant more rape flowers. The number of tourists reached up to more than 8,000 in 2010 and 30,000 in 2011, respectively. Subsequently, farmhouses appeared overnight. "More than 1,000 tourists came here yesterday and we can't accommodate the amount of people", said Cai.
In 2012, an investment of 50,000 yuan was used to plant 13.3 hectares of rape. To prolong the flower blossom episodes, the rapes will be planted in different periods. It is estimated that the number of tourists will be up to 60,000 this year.
Lvjiang village aims to promote development through tourism and shake off poverty by ecological agricultural tourism. Until now, more than 70 percent of villagers in this village have transformed their work from traditional agriculture to the tourism industry. The number of farmhouses and aquatels has amounted to more than 20 to date.
Edited by Zhao Qian and Rakhee M
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