Chrysanthemums are widely planted in Shanlian village, Wuxi's Xishan district. [Photo provided to wuxinews.com.cn]
Dried chrysanthemums produced in Shanlian village, Wuxi's Xishan district, have become part of the life of Yu Jiaye, who has been working as deputy Party secretary there since 2016.
The village, with a population of more than 7,000, is known as "Jiangsu's happiest village" and a "national-level eco-friendly village". However, it used to be listed among the province's poorest villages, with an annual per capita income of less than 10,000 yuan ($1,450).
Yu's home, Xinxiang village, is next to Shanlian village. After graduating from college, Yu returned home and worked to promote local specialties.
Yu's involvement with dried chrysanthemums started in 2016, when he was transferred to Shanlian village to take responsibility for tourism publicity.
Yu started to publish beautiful pictures of local dried chrysanthemums and videos with short texts on social media such as WeChat, chat groups and Sina Weibo. Surprisingly, these posts became popular and brought thousands of sales in the first month.
Since then, Yu has become a spokesman for Shanlian's chrysanthemums and he takes chrysanthemum products every time he attends events, summits and TV shows.
Chrysanthemums were developed as a pillar industry in the village. The flowers are turned into a wide variety of products, including chrysanthemum tea, ornaments, medicines, candy, wine and hand cream.
In addition, Yu works as a guide on tour carts around Shanlian village, explaining the history of the beautiful village and promoting chrysanthemums to visitors.
After Shanlian village became an example of how farmers can become well-off through ecological construction, Yu visited Ganzha village, Huichuan town in Northwest China's Gansu province in 2016, aiming to help locals there move out of poverty with the "Shanlian model".
People from Ganzha village visited Shanlian to learn chrysanthemum planting, drying and selling. Ganzha successfully alleviated poverty as scheduled.
Yu's story with chrysanthemums will continue, accodring to Yu with a big smile.
