Mushrooms lift Daqiao out of acute poverty

HARBIN - It stopped raining before Fan Wenling woke up and put on her jacket. She took a bag, started her motorcycle and quickly rode toward a forest outside the village.

Fan was hurrying to pick the best mushrooms to sell at the highest price. Many villagers such as Fan pick mushrooms in Daqiao village in the Mongolian autonomous county of Dorbod, Northeast China's Heilongjiang province.

Located on the edge of Horqin, China's largest sandy area, a large part of the village was covered by sand in the 1970s. Villagers were plagued by frequent sandstorms, and it was almost impossible to grow crops.