Money grows on trees for bonsai farmers in Jiangsu

With bonsai trees of various shapes and birds chirping in the garden, Wang Guangming skillfully attaches a twig to the branch of a pine tree before covering it with some cling wrap.

"The cling wrap cover is a new grafting technique that I have developed, which helps reduce the tree's growth time and creates more design possibilities," says Wang, 67, a farmer who has been growing bonsai trees for over 50 years in the Guzhuang community of Rugao city in East China's Jiangsu province.

"I'm not afraid that others will steal the technique from me. There's a lot behind it. Picking the right timing with the perfect temperature and humidity relies on years of experience," he says.

People in Rugao have traditionally grown bonsai trees, with the practice possibly dating back to the Tang Dynasty (618-907).Growing bonsai trees has changed Wang's life over the years.

"The alkaline soil here didn't produce a high grain yield, and we weren't even able to feed ourselves back in the early 1970s," he recalls.

In 1976, Wang and the villagers started to grow bonsai trees on a large scale. In the 1980s, they would go to other cities in the country to sell their trees, and some of them could earn an annual income of over 10,000 yuan ($1,431).

The bonsai trees are therefore described by locals as the "green bank".

"Even if you don't sell a certain tree this year, you don't have to worry. You can sell it for a higher price later when it grows into a bigger tree with a better design," he says.