Enchanting plum trees in Maihuayu village, Huangshan city are in full bloom. [Photo/WeChat ID: hsgdtwx]
Maihuayu village – administered by Shexian county, in Huangshan city in Anhui province – was recently listed in the Best Practices of Rural Vitalization through Tourism, which was released by the World Tourism Alliance and the International Poverty Reduction Center in China.
That accolade was in recognition of its thriving penjing or Chinese bonsai tree business.
Located in the hilly area of southern Anhui, the question is often asked about how the village managed to overcome the difficulties of inconvenient transportation and developed the planting and arranging of the exquisite miniature trees as a lucrative business.
To inherit and develop it, Maihuayu trained a group of 86 craftsmen to excel at producing the bonsai trees – including one State-level, one provincial-level and 12 municipal-level representative inheritors of the Huizhou-style bonsai trees.
Moreover, over 10 million yuan ($1.43 million) has been invested in improving the village's infrastructure. Projects such as widening the roads and adopting more visitor-friendly signage have been finished.
In addition, residents are being encouraged to grow plum trees and 10 consecutive plum blossom photography festivals have now been held. This has not only promoted the integrated development of the bonsai trees business and rural tourism, but also boosted the incomes of villagers.
In 2021, the total income of the village was 38.24 million yuan, up 5.57 percent year-on-year.
A group of cyclists has a ball riding through the very picturesque Maihuayu village. [Photo/WeChat ID: hsgdtwx]