Now, the farm features a 1,500-square meter restaurant, a 300-mu herb plantation and a 100-mu forest park.

The farm gives visitors a chance to ride horses, practice archery, pick fruits, go fishing and do sightseeing, while enjoying the distinctive local cuisine.

The farm receives more than 60,000 travelers annually, and has a turnover of more than 5 million yuan, according to Wei.

The farm has become a popular place for team-building activities, and school military drills, and Wei's business has created job opportunities for more than 120 locals.

Most of them work flexible hours, and plant seeds, pull out weeds and help with harvests at the farm when they don't have farm work in their own plots of land.

At the moment, there are a dozen of them working full time at the farm.

Zhang Yingfa is one of them. And he has been taking care of feeding the horses, cleaning at the farm for the past three years.

"It (the farm) is close to my home and work here is good," the 52-year-old local says.

Zhang gets paid roughly 3,200 yuan a month, an amount he used to typically earn in a year.