The first service center of Taobao - Alibaba's online shopping site - in China's ethnic opened on August 18, according to a report from chinajilin.com, which explains that this is a major e-commerce leap for the Northeast.

The move is also a part of China's policy of promoting cooperation between e-commerce businesses and rural areas, after the finance and commerce ministries earlier recognized eight counties and cities as exemplary "E-Commerce Going Rural" sites for 2015 and allotted each of them 18.5 million yuan ($2.89 million) for e-commerce development.

Dunhua city in Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture, Jilin province, takes advantage of Alibaba’s plan of cooperating with rural parts of China, and the center, which, after a trial run, has seen its trade grow to more than 1 million yuan ($156,400).

Taobao staff members explain that they will select, train and support more than 100 people from Dunhua over the next two years and hope that this will encourage more people with business dreams to join them in the near future.

A staff member from Taobao teaches vocational class for young businessmen in a taobao service center in a village, Mengcheng county, Anhui province, August 20, 2015. [Photo by Hu Weiguo/Asianewsphoto]

Fortunately, Dunhua is not alone in this effort, with more farmers in the Northeast apparently looking to join the e-commerce business as a new channel for regional economic development.

One person who has already benefitted is Yang Chao, a businessman in Jilin province, who has gained a chance to show his foods at the ongoing agriculture expo so that more people will know about them. He sells foods from other provinces to people in Jilin online and is planning to sell Jilin specialties to other provinces as his new business.

In commenting on this new line of work, Yang says, "The work is challenging, but it makes me energetic."