A street that's paved with gold
Radiating from a city in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, the thoroughfare provides opportunities through its booming tourism sector, report Xing Wen in Tekes county and Mao Weihua in Urumqi.
Expansion of e-commerce
In a lively corner of Lijie street is a two-story building in which well-packaged soaps, bottles of lavender oils, dairy puffs, dried apricots, nuts and an array of other specialties produced in Tekes county are arranged on the shelves for tourists to purchase. All the goods on show there can also be ordered online.
The building serves as the county's rural e-commerce public service center, with its first floor being used for displaying and selling various specialties, while its second floor is a place where free training sessions on e-commerce are regularly held for local people eager to work in the sector.
"As the county becomes increasingly popular as a travel destination, its e-commerce sector is looking to seize the development opportunity to promote local specialties, especially agricultural produce, that will generate new momentum for rural vitalization," says Guo Xuemei, director of the rural e-commerce public service center.
Guo once studied logistics management at a university based in Urumqi.
In 2016, Guo and her husband, a Tekes native, decided to leave Urumqi and return to the husband's roots in response to the county's active recruitment of young talent.
Guo soon started to work in the local rural e-commerce public service center.
"I've systematically learned the theoretical knowledge of e-commerce and become a qualified instructor in the field," she says.
She and her colleagues often travel across the county to give free e-commerce training to people, trying to incubate entrepreneurship in the sector.
"I love my job," Guo says. "Most of my colleagues are vigorous young people who have the determination to expand e-commerce opportunities in Tekes."
More than 10,000 people from across the county have attended the free training sessions offered by the rural e-commerce public service center.
"We will first teach them some basic knowledge about e-commerce. If they are interested, a five-day camp will be organized for them to learn how to open a shop on e-commerce platforms and how to conduct livestream promotions," says Guo.
