Villagers harvest Solomon's Seal, a herbal medicine known as huang jing in Chinese, in Shangshankeng village, Lishui, Zhejiang province. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Elderly and left-behind villagers in remote parts of Zhejiang find their fortunes growing tea oil trees

Remote villages in Zhejiang province have discovered a more balanced and coordinated path toward development in efforts to achieve common prosperity and rural modernization.

Zhou Weifu, an 85-year-old from Shangshankeng village in Lishui city's Jianggen township, earned 60,000 yuan ($8,762) in wages and dividends during this year's Spring Festival. Since joining a local cooperative, he has earned an average of 160 yuan a day for pulling weeds.

Many left-behind older people in rural areas used to live alone and had no other option than to work as farmers.

"There are 58 left-behind seniors in the village now working in the cooperative, and each makes around 30,000 yuan per year," said Hu Guanghai, the Party secretary of Shangshankeng.

The village, one of the most remote in Zhejiang, currently has 786 residents and has undergone robust development in recent years. The resulting spike in incomes means that villagers earned a combined total of 3.08 million yuan last year.

Most of that is due to the camellia oleifera plantation the local government created on a 3.33-square-kilometer plot, which provides work for many left-behind seniors in Zhejiang and neighboring Fujian province.

To ensure that as many people as possible benefit from the trees, from which tea oil is produced, a production service center and a seed shelling plant were built, creating more job opportunities.

The site is operated by Zhejiang He Chang Yu Ecological Agriculture, which was founded by local entrepreneurs.

"I used to open supermarkets elsewhere. However, I feel a strong sense of belonging to my hometown, and I want people here to live better lives," said Zheng Weiping, chairman of the company. "My original intention was to help left-behind seniors find employment at home."

In 2019, Zheng decided to return to the village and start a camellia oleifera business. Zhou Jiadao, who also comes from Shangshankeng, accompanied him, and over the past three years, their plantation has paid out 10 million yuan in wages, helping left-behind seniors in 25 villages in Zhejiang and Fujian.

"They earn about 3,000 to 5,000 yuan a month. Some do more basic work, and so may earn less. If the base salary includes food and lodging, employees receive 160 yuan per day, but skilled workers who are able to use farming machinery can earn as much as 280 yuan per day," Hu said.

"In addition to making a salary, they can make money by investing. For example, let's say someone gets 4,000 yuan a month. If they spend 1,000 yuan on living expenses, they can invest the rest in the plantation. At the end of the year, they receive the money they've made from their investment," the village Party secretary added.

The plantation produces around 25 metric tons of tea oil per year, worth about 5 million yuan, Hu said.

Shangshankeng is now trying to find ways that will benefit elderly workers even more.

"There will be additional income from seed shelling workshops and from our solar power generation station this year," Hu added.

To sustain development, Jianggen township is investing in the environment and plans to grow more camellia oleifera trees and also boost its white tea industry, which will benefit various companies, cooperatives and villagers, as well as the local government.

Last year, employees involved in growing the plants and white tea earned 8.3 million yuan, benefiting over 500 left-behind seniors.

"In addition, we now also grow Solomon's Seal — known as huang jing in Chinese — which is a herbal medicine, and the plantation is around a square kilometer in size," Hu said.

"We plan to plant even more of it this year, given that it is selling for a good price on the market at the moment. I think we will benefit from it in the next one or two years."

Fang Xiaoying in Hangzhou contributed to this story.