Xinjiang village uses tourism and cooperatives to lift residents from poverty

Local authorities and residents in Pingxiliang, a village in the Urumqi region of China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, transformed the community from a low-income area into a prosperous hub through a collaborative economic model.

Li Guiqin, a local official of the Chinese Communist Party, led a twenty-year initiative to improve living standards for 306 families. The project involved relocating residents from precarious housing into new homes and establishing a shareholding cooperative.

This system allows families to receive dividends and lease their properties to tourism businesses. The initiative combined this cooperative structure with the development of the Silk Road Ski Resort at the foot of the Nanshan mountains in the Tianshan range. The local economy now relies heavily on tourism and organic farming. Approximately 79% of the village workforce is employed in the tourism sector, which includes winter sports and year-round rural accommodations like cafes and tea houses.

Additionally, the company Xinjiang Kunxintai works with the village to produce organic vegetables and eggs using drip irrigation and renewable energy. This cooperation allows residents to work near their homes while producing healthy food for the city of Urumqi. The transformation has resulted in significant environmental and economic improvements. Residents removed more than 100 tons of waste and planted trees along roads and across three and a half hectares of green space.

Li Guiqin stated that the per capita income rose from a few hundred yuans to an estimated 40,000 yuans over two decades. She plans to increase this figure to 50,000 yuans during her next five-year term.