Traditional black soap helps clean up poverty in Xinjiang

Bars of shabby-looking homemade soap are generating economic and environmental benefits for Qingel county in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.

The so-called black soap is a traditional cleansing bar made by herdsmen mixing dried plants such as nettle and sunflower with animal oil.

Yin Qingjiang, Party secretary of Janbultas, found the natural cleansing product while visiting a herdsman's family in Janbultas village in early 2018.