Harvesting profits from leadership

To achieve that, Qi has established an e-commerce service station to facilitate the sales of rural produce from more than 100 standardized fruit and vegetable greenhouses jointly run by her and other local villagers.

Zhang Xiuqin no longer has to wake up at unearthly hours and rush to sell vegetables at local markets since she started to work with Qi a few years ago.

"We all trust (Qi) Xiaojing. The online orders she provides have never failed to come through and the payment for our vegetables has always arrived on time," Zhang says.

One greenhouse can increase her income by more than 5,000 yuan, she adds.

Reflecting on the development over the past decade, Qi deems it an upgrade from version 1.0 to version 4.0.

"Version 1.0 was growing crops in greenhouses to develop agricultural production; version 2.0 involved offering tourists vegetable and fruit picking while developing the catering industry; version 3.0 was an advancement to an integrated model of training, lodging and catering; version 4.0 is the current agricultural tourism complex," she says.

To date, Qi has evolved from something of an entrepreneur to a tutor who helps to train more of her fellow villagers to find the key for rural vitalization.

"I believe in the cause, which means bringing more people together to form a youth alliance and sharing resources," Qi says.

"It might be me leading them forward at the beginning, but now they are my pillar of strength and together, we forge ahead."

Contact the writer at yangfeiyue@chinadaily.com.cn