Xinjiang village charts prosperous path on back of tourism

Mamat Tursun used to work as a herdsman. He had to drive his sheep up the mountain to graze at dawn every day and was unable to go home until the sunset. Due to the threatening factors to animal husbandry such as wolves' attack and livestock diseases, Mamat's livelihood was hardly guaranteed.

In the last two years, when he saw tourists flocking to the village and his neighbors starting to engage in tourism and earning good money, Mamat was intrigued.

In September 2019, he volunteered for job at the village. Knowing that he had learned to make nang, a traditional flatbread in Xinjiang, the person responsible for the village actively coordinated with him and set up a nang store next to an inn in the village. Since then, he and his wife have been selling nang to tourists. When it comes to tourism peak season, they are able to sell more than 500 nang and earn about 1,500 yuan each day.

"I have turned my house into homestay for tourists now, and I'm able to earn more than 10,000 yuan from this every year," said Mamat. "With the income coming from the house and selling nang, I earn much more than herding sheep."

"Since the beginning of the year, the village has received 196,500 tourists and earned more than 27.4 million yuan from tourism alone, which is quite remarkable," said Yang Han, secretary of the Bureau of Culture and Tourism of Wensu county.

"Moving forward, we are ready to apply 5A-rated scenic spots for the village and the neighboring scenic spots," Yang said. "I believe our villagers will benefit more from tourism and more villagers will voluntarily join us."