Hunan couple build new lives planting rice

Young farmers find a way to sow successfully with seedling machine

Xiao Lin and Xia Yan celebrated their first anniversary on Dec 6, but their wedding is still a legend in the neighborhood.

Instead of renting a Ferrari when they married in 2020, Xiao Lin took a tractor to pick up his bride. Leading the wedding fleet of six tractors, each decorated with flowers, balloons, red silk and big red bow ties, he picked up Xia Yan before parading through the village.

Explaining the symbolism behind his seemingly unromantic choice, Xiao told his wife that the tractors were the two different kinds used for transplanting and harvesting, the start and the end of the farming cycle. So, in a way, they represented the beginning and future bounty of their lives together.

The unusual choice of transportation got the couple a lot of attention. Villagers ran alongside the tractors to wish them luck, and their wedding made local headlines.

During the unique ceremony, the couple announced their vow to devote their lives to farming.

Xiao and Xia are from Anhua county in Yiyang, Hunan province. Before they returned to their hometown in Central China to become farmers, they both lived in the provincial capital, Changsha, where they had decent jobs with good incomes.

Xiao studied design at college and worked as an interior decorator, while Xia worked in an educational organization.

Wanting to be able to take better care of his parents, Xiao decided to return to the village, and Xia, who found great potential in modern agriculture, agreed to go with him.