Zhanjiang's Suixi county and e-commerce giant Alibaba Group signed a rural Taobao project agreement on July 31, aiming to recruit 30 rural Taobao partners during the first stage of the project.

As of Aug 2, more than 150 people have signed up for Taobao partners project. Zhen Hongyan is one of them.

"I saw the information on WeChat friends circle and I signed up right away," Zhen said.

He focused on e-commerce after graduating from the university in 2006 in an effort to realize his dream to start up his own business in his hometown Suixi.

Suixi has convenient transportation and abundant natural resources. It is near six freeway entrances and only 20 kilometers away from both the Zhanjiang Port and the Zhanjiang Civil Flight Airport.

There are about 340,000 mu (22,667 hectares) of vegetable fields and 120,000 mu of fruit farms in the county. It is also rich in seafood such as squid, shark fin and sandworm.

Knowing of Suixi's rich potential, Zhen Hongyan plans to establish a Taobao county-level service station and sell marine products on Taobao.com.

Suixi is the first pivot county for rural Taobao project in Zhanjiang. Taking the advantage of the Internet Plus e-commerce, the county is attracting more and more young people with entrepreneurial dreams to return to their hometowns and help promote further development of urban and rural integration.

Farmers pack dragon fruits in Suixi county, Zhanjiang. [Photo by Liu Jicheng/Zhanjiang Daily]

Edited by Mevlut Katik