Along came hope

"In the first 10 days, a few people came but didn't buy anything," Yang recalled. "But things took off soon after. When we'd finally sold 10,000 yuan worth of goods, we were elated. We called our local government and they couldn't believe it.

"Later, 10,000 yuan would be nothing unusual," he added. "We sold 70,000 yuan in goods on the best day."

The first batch of tourists was organized by the city government, which launched its wetland celebration with much fanfare. However, with publicity came independent tourists.

"We were worried that nobody would show up. Would we lose 1 million yuan by the end of the season?" said the village head, who doubles as the boss for the corporate entity managing the village business.

Tourists from downtown Harbin came mostly by boats managed by other companies, he said, although "once (the tourists) docked at Shengli and wanted to travel farther they would take our boats".

To shorten the bumpy road that leads into the village, Yang decided to widen a country path into a regular road fit for two vehicles to pass on. The road, 7 meters wide and 3.5 kilometers long, which was not finished until mid-October, cost 2.8 million yuan. But it almost halved the 40-minute drive to downtown.

Even though Shengli's debut as part of Harbin's wetland lasted less than five months by October it was already too cold and the infrastructure was not yet complete villagers finally saw a ray of hope.

Of the 18 sightseeing spots, half were finished, and the rest will be done by this summer. "Last year, everything came so suddenly, we couldn't prepare in advance," Yang said. "Materials such as gravel and wood had to be carried by boat and then on our back. Automobiles could not go near the shore."

Now, the wetland at this section employs 150 households, with 4 million yuan out of the 5 million yuan made last year plowed back into the village in the form of salaries.