A blossoming idea

In 2018, Leung and her mother officially signed an investment agreement with the local government to develop horticulture, and to combine it with the local tourism and health industries in a bid to boost incomes in the county.

But Leung's good intentions were overwhelmed by doubts from local people. They could not understand how growing flowers could help them battle poverty. After all, flowers had been growing there for generations.

"Different from growing corn and potatoes, which can be eaten, sold or fed to livestock, many people like me doubted what we could do with the flowers," recalls Zhou Qiao, 28, a local woman who later joined Leung's business.

Difficulties soon became apparent. Leung suffered from altitude sickness and often had severe headaches. She brought a group of eight people to Hezhang, most of whom were from Guangdong. It took time for them to become accustomed to the hardships, such as lack of water or heating.

Leung wanted to contribute to the poverty-alleviation mission in a way that empowered locals with the means to prosper and help them sell what they had planted. It was also important to ensure the flowers grew on their land. For this reason, she gave up planting chrysanthemums, which had been proved to grow well in Hezhang.

"At first we experimented, planting more than 40 kinds of chrysanthemums, 90 percent of which successfully grew in the county. But we discovered such flowers needed complicated cultivation in greenhouses, so they were hard to grow on the farmers' own land."

A change that matters

Considering that Hezhang is perched in the mountains with few areas of flat ground for growing flowers, they gave up mass cultivation. They decided, instead, to grow flowers that have high added value and can be made into products, such as aromatics.

As a result, her team introduced lavender and Hydrangea macrophylla which can be transformed into scented oil and preserved fresh flowers that can last for years.

Now, Hezhang's flowers are being ordered by cosmetics companies.

"I also hope our flower cultivation can be part of local tourist resources," says Leung. Visitors can only see flowers in season, so she is planting more varieties.

Zhou was one of the first local people Leung met in Hezhang. When they met for the first time, Leung found that the woman, a year younger than herself, was a mother of three, and "her family of seven people lived in a very small house without any decent furniture".

"Zhou told me she wanted to buy some new clothes for her children, since they always wore hand-me-downs from others. Although her children never asked for new clothes, she still felt guilty," Leung recalls.

Zhou joined Leung's business soon after it was established, though she had her doubts. But she worked very hard, and with her good Mandarin, she became a bridge between Leung's team and the local people.

Six months after she joined Leung, her family was lifted out of poverty. After more than two years, she is currently a member of the managerial staff, and other members of her family have also joined the venture.

This year, Zhou's family built a new two-story house. She says: "I could only earn about 1,000 yuan ($146) per month in my previous jobs, but now I can earn 4,000 yuan. My husband and my parents-in-law also work here, with my family earning about 10,000 yuan per month now."