Prosperity plan works like magic

Residents of Liyu village look to cash in on stage performances

On stage, a magician conjures a goldfish out of thin air, an escape artist breaks free of a tangle of ropes and illusionists levitate centimeters above the ground, to gasps and cheers from the audience.

It may sound like the sort of spectacle people would travel to Macao or Las Vegas to see, but all this actually took place in a small village in Wuxiang county, North China's Shanxi province.