First lady brings fame to Beireng

Beireng village in Qionghai city, Hainan province, attracts many visitors due to its picturesque views, rural lifestyle and surrounding scenic spots such as the Guantang Hot Spring.

Only eight kilometers from the city center, the village won overnight fame when Peng Liyuan, President Xi Jinping's wife, and the wives of some foreign leaders visited in March.

Peng invited the first ladies who had accompanied their husbands to the Boao Forum for Asia to tour the village and enjoy coffee and local snacks at the Thatch Cafe.

"Madame Peng said the coffee I made was delicious and reporters called it 'Madame Coffee'. It sells very well," says the caf's owner Wang Qiuxiang.

Wang worked in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, for 17 years, but quit her job to open the cafe with an investment of 500,000 yuan ($78,030).

In May 2014, the Qionghai city government started to rebuild Beireng village as a tourism attraction and invited experts to do the designs. There are cycling routes, farmstays, cafes and a bookstore that make visitors' experiences more colorful.

The village's new look has inspired villagers such as Wang to return to start their own businesses, and she believes her success can be an example for other residents.

In the village, 36 households are now operating businesses related to tourism, with 122 people working in tourism-related industries such as dining, bike rentals and souvenir sales. Last year, the number of visits to the village was 220,000 and the net per capita income was 25,500 yuan.

According to the village's Party branch secretary Li Zhaoliang, 80 percent of the villagers have a stake in rural tourism programs. As they can start their own businesses at home to make money, they don't want to go to big cities to be migrant workers anymore.

He said they can not only earn a monthly salary of 1,700 yuan by working at a farmstay, they can also sell homegrown vegetables and homebred chickens to the business.

huangyiming@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 08/31/2015 page12)