Farmers get rich from booming tourism

Liang Wanli, 54, a farmer in Zhaojin, a rural town in Tongchuan, Shaanxi province, has switched from planting farmland to working for a tourism company like a white-collar employee.

"The four members of my family all work in the company and our annual income reached more than 130,000 yuan ($20,759), including our wages and farmland transfer revenue," Liang said.

Liang was an ambitious farmer and left his land to do commercial business several years ago, but his project failed and was in debt to the tune of 180,000 yuan by 2012.

"Working in the company not only helped me to pay back the debt, but also let me make our family rich," Liang said.

Like Liang, many farmers in the town became employees in the tourism industry and became rich as they did not reply solely on agricultural production.

Zhaojin used to be a communist revolutionary base before 1949 and has several historical sites and natural scenery which has attracted increasing numbers of visitors in recent years.

In October, 2012, Zhaojincun Red Tourism Development (Group) Co., Ltd was established as the town's urbanization construction took place, and the development changed living and working conditions for local farmers.

Hou Junli opened her restaurant in September last year and was surprised that the small outlet was crowded with visitors during weekends and holidays.

"I am so happy with my business although I am terribly busy to receive the visitors, because the restaurant business made my family rich and happy," Hou said.

At present, most local farmers, who are also shareholders in the tourism company, have businesses like Hou in the town's commercial street to improve their living by providing services to the visitors.

According to Zhang Yujun, general manager of the tourism company, his company has also developed ecological agriculture and real estate management besides the tourism business.

"We have some 300 employees including 65 university graduates working in our company and some of our farmers have become managers with professional knowledge of the tourism industry," Zhang said.

The development of tourism has increased local farmers' income from 7,450 yuan ($1,190) annually in 2011 to 15,000 yuan in last year.