Brighter prospects

While tourism in Gufang is growing rapidly, vegetable-planting is catching up, changing the lives of many villagers in the industry, including that of Zou Yongcun, who nearly lost his confidence in life when he returned home 10 years ago due to his wife's illness.

Standing in a vegetable greenhouse late last month, the 50-year-old checked the blossom and leaves on a pumpkin plant. He cut off the leaves on the lower part of the plant to ensure nutrition went directly to the blossom at the top.

Temperatures in many parts of the country have plunged recently, but in the greenhouse it was nearly 30 C. However, as he was concentrating on the plants, Zou barely noticed the heat.

"Each mu of land can yield 1,000 to 2,000 kilograms of pumpkins. They sell very well, with the price per kilogram reaching 5 to 6 yuan," he said.

This is the fifth year that Zou has managed the vegetable greenhouses. He holds shares in them and receives dividends at the end of each year.

"When each mu of land yields 1,000 kg, it means that the cost of planting pumpkins is completely covered, and when the land yields 2,000 kg per mu, the profit is considerable," he said.

To improve production and quality, Zou spends a great deal of time in the greenhouses, watering, applying fertilizer, disinfecting, detecting problems and attempting to solve them. He also occasionally visits Huichang county and Ganzhou city, Jiangxi, to attend training sessions provided by agricultural professionals.

During busy times, he hires villagers to help him, paying them 70 yuan to 80 yuan a day. Devoting himself to his career, Zou said the sense of fulfillment he had when he ran the garment business years ago has returned.

Other aspects of his life are also improving.

His wife's condition stabilized after she had a surgery in 2016. She still needs to take pills and have regular physical examinations, which cost about 1,000 yuan a month. However, thanks to the insurance cover for patients from impoverished families, many of these bills are reimbursable and she only pays a few dozen yuan a month for treatment.

Zou's son graduated from a university in Inner Mongolia autonomous region this year and is preparing to take postgraduate entrance exams.

"As the financial situation of my family improves, I'm better able to support my son's studies for his master's degree," Zou said.

Chen Xia'nan, Liu Yue and Tian Zimu contributed to this story.