YINCHUAN－Under the scorching sun, Pan Hongwei loosens the dry soil around the goji berry trees and waters the plants. Her stylish sun-protective clothing makes her conspicuous among other female farmers wearing pink hoods.
The 34-year-old and her husband, Xue Hongwei, are busy cultivating goji berries in Shuangjingzi village of Zhongning county in Northwest China's Ningxia Hui autonomous region.
Goji berry, also known as wolfberry, is a local specialty known for its nutritional value.
The young couple have been selling locally produced goji berries on e-commerce platforms since 2014 and earned a fortune. Last year, their company sales topped 5 million yuan ($774,500).
They started to grow their own goji berries early this year on land taken on lease from fellow villagers to produce more quality products and make more profits.
Yet, the road to success has never been easy for the couple.
In 2014, the couple, having both finished university education, tied the knot. They both had high-paying jobs in Beijing, where Pan was born and raised.
To everyone's surprise, they made a life-changing decision later that year to move to Shuangjingzi, Xue's native village, to start an e-commerce business.
"We were then trying to help my parents and fellow villagers make more money from goji berries, as they were selling the fruit to middlemen at very low prices," recalls Xue.
His family has been engaged in goji berry cultivation in the village for generations.
However, their lack of experience in e-commerce led to a slow start.
"The costs involved in advertising, packaging and transport were too high in the first few years. We were then just struggling to make ends meet," Xue says.
However, things started to turn around when the couple found livestreaming offered a new lifeline for their e-commerce business in early 2020.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the couple started to livestream and sell their products on short-video platforms last year. The expedient measure turned out very effective, quickly pushing up their sales.
"Livestreaming connects us with consumers directly, helping us to cut down on advertising cost," Pan says.
The couple's account on Douyin, a popular Chinese short-video platform, has more than 136,000 followers.
Now, the couple start their livestreaming sessions in goji berry fields at around 8 am and wrap up by noon. During the sessions, they livestream villagers working in the fields and introduce the nutritional value of the goji berry while holding the red fruit in hand.
"Now I can livestream for two hours, while at first, I didn't even know what to say in front of the camera," Pan says.
Reflecting on the changes embraced over the years, Pan says her life in Shuangjingzi has removed almost all traces of her old urban life. In return, she has been rewarded with an immense sense of fulfillment.
The couple are building a goji berry processing factory in the village to create more jobs for the villagers.
"We're glad to have helped make a difference here," Pan says.
A farmer harvests goji berries in Zhongning county in the Ningxia Hui autonomous region in mid-June. The fruits are the major source of income for local residents. TANG RUFENG/XINHUA