Zong Xuelin harvests strawberries from a greenhouse he runs on the revitalized lands laid waste by years of mining, in Houhu village, Huainan, Anhui province. Photos by Chen Bin / for China Daily

Lands rendered worthless by mining in Anhui province are being put to new use, giving farmers a fresh source of livelihood. Zhang Yue reports.

While for most Chinese the Spring Festival is a time off from work, for Zong Xuelin it is the busiest time of the year. The 46-year-old is a greenhouse strawberry cultivator in Huainan, Anhui province. And greenhouse strawberries are typically harvested between December and May.

Since early December, Zong has rarely taken a day's break. Every morning he rides to the nearest market to sell his harvest of strawberries from the 36 greenhouses he runs with his four brothers.

"My strawberries are very popular," Zong says. "Almost every day my two trucks sell out to retailers in less than an hour."

Prices for fruit are typically high at festival time, and on New Year's Eve, Zong earned 3,000 yuan ($455) by selling his strawberries at 14 yuan per kilogram.

It is hard to imagine that two years ago, the land where Zong grows his strawberries, was laid waste by years of mining. Panji district of Huainan city is a large coal mining area; the 600 sq km district has been dotted with mines and coal-based enterprises since the 1970s.

So far, mining has submerged 2,300 hectares of land and 52,000 local residents have had to be relocated.

In Zong's village of Houhu, decades of mining have left its environment in a shambles. Since the 1990s, mining has blocked the water channels, leaving villagers with little land suitable for cultivation.

Zong's lands began to sink in the early 1990s and even his two-story house would fill with water whenever it rained.