Life for residents of Red area improving

Editor's Note:China Daily is running a series of stories on old revolutionary bases with profound history and heritage that are striving to lead local people on the road to prosperity in the new era.

Tea, TCM and loans help Jinzhai county dwellers prosper as they emerge from poverty

Luo Xianping has been busy overseeing the harvest of Corydalis tuber, a traditional Chinese medicinal plant that belongs to the poppy family, in the mountains of Jinzhai county in Anhui province.

Last autumn, the resident of Banzhuyuan township planted about 53 hectares of the plant, which is used to relieve pain.

"The plantation should bring in about 3.2 million yuan ($473,300) this year," said Luo, who hired farmers to take care of his land and encouraged others to grow more of the plant on their own farmland.

Luo, who is in his 50s, calls his farm "Tushengjin", which translates as "soil becomes gold".

A member of the Communist Party of China, he said he was happy with his business and life, though his family experienced difficulties in the past. In the late 1920s, Luo's grandfather and five brothers joined the CPC army to take part in the revolution. Only one returned alive, but badly wounded.

It wasn't until after the founding of New China that the family learned that the others, including Luo's grandfather, had died while serving. "They paid with their lives in hopes that their descendants could live happy lives," he said.

Records show that more than 2,000 people from Banzhuyuan－which currently has a population of 20,000－were martyred during the revolution.

Jinzhai county was one of the birthplaces of the people's armed forces and of the Chinese revolution. About a third of its 300,000 residents participated, and most died in battles, according to the Jinzhai Revolution Museum.