BAOSHAN – “The aroma of coffee pierces the heart”, this is how coffee lovers feel when they visit Xinzhai Village located in the city of Baoshan, Yunnan, China.
It used to be a poor village plagued by crime but everything changed when the local Chinese government appointed Wang Jiawei and some of his friends to come to the village to develop the residents’ economy through coffee cultivation.
Through the hard work of the villagers growing coffee under Wang’s guidance, the commodity is now the main contributor to the residents’ income and even Xinzhai Village is known as the Number One Coffee Village in China.
“Being kind to the land eventually gets the results”, that is the proverb that may be most suitable for the residents of Xinzhai Village.
The quality of the coffee products produced in the village is comparable to the coffee from Lujiang Town in Anhui province which has indeed been a large-scale coffee producer in China since 1952.
Various efforts have been made by Wang who is also the head of Kampung Xinzhai since 2012 to convince the residents to get involved in coffee cultivation.
“Seven times I have been offered by the government to come to this village to lead development here in line with the government’s wishes which want entrepreneurs or rich people to help provide an economic platform for the residents.
“Finally I accepted the offer. At that time, I and some young men were selected by the central government to go to Xinzhai Village and were divided according to our respective expertise,” Wang told Bernama during a visit to the Get to Know Baoshan program here.
It turned out that Wang’s initiative paid off when many residents began to be confident in the economy of the coffee industry after the increase in the price of the commodity in 2016.
Coffee cultivation not only succeeded in changing the socio-economic status of the population but also made the village known and became the focus of industry players who wanted to see more closely the success of the cultivation of the commodity in the Gaoligong mountains thus bringing a dynamic change to the town of Baoshan.
Wang said coffee cultivation is now one of the main sources of income for the residents of Kampung Xinzhai but at the same time he has also drawn up several plans that can strengthen the economy of the area including bringing reforms for the young people.
“I sent the male youth of this village to learn and master skills such as welding while the women mastered cooking skills.
“With the skills learned, they are able to find related jobs, especially when it is not the coffee season, thus guaranteeing their survival,” said Wang. – Named
