The spring scenery in Yuan’an County, which is located in Yichang City, Hubei Province, is so beautiful that numerous tourists come to go sightseeing there. Seeing the chance, the Bureau of Industry and Commerce of Yuan’an County gives judicious guidance according to circumstances and vigorously develops the new industrialized rural economy of large scale. In brief, tourism industry has become the “shortcut” to wealth for rural entrepreneurs.
　　On April 18, Li Zhisheng, who is engaged in the business of miniature landscapes, said: “Since the cooperative agency of farmers has been established, the production scale is enlarged and more resources are available. The total sales revenue increased several times and we are walking on the road of common prosperity.” Li, who has participated in several county and provincial competitions and gain awards many times with his root carving works, has been working on the root carving for a long time. In the past he only ran a small workshop and produced only a small number of root carving products. Fortunately, in recent two years, Yuan’an County has been vigorously developing the tourism industry. Therefore, sales increased and the supply is inadequate to meet the demand. Advised and guided by the officials of Industrial and Commercial Bureau in Yuan’an County, Li, combined with surrounding farmers, established the Professional Farmers Cooperative of Classical Flower Landscapes. At present,there are more than 10 members and the root carvings they produced each year were sold all over the country.
　　Now, handicrafts, including fantastic root carvings, wonder stones, bamboo vessels, handmade shoes and woven bags, and special foods, including the original mushroom sauce and fermented bean curd, are very popular among the tourists. In order to serve the development of agricultural economy better, the Bureau of Industry and Commerce of Yuan’an County found out the breakthrough point, held the large-scale entrepreneurship seminar titled with “To go into the industrial park and fulfill our entrepreneurial dream together”, tried hard to guide inheritors of folk arts, such as Li Zhisheng, to establish Professional Farmers Cooperatives and helped farmers take advantage of the good opportunities of “everywhere of Yuan’an County are becoming the scenic area” Program to vigorously develop the new industrialized rural economy of large scale through demonstration and promotion. They also paid return visits regularly to those professional farmers cooperatives, learned their current situation in detail and made development planning of brands in a scientific way. In addition, They also guided the farmers to improve the added value of products and market competitiveness through registered trademarks, adding great developing power to the professional farmers cooperatives.
　　According to statistics, there have been more than 200 professional farmers cooperatives, including the Kistler Museum, the Miniature Landscapes and the Hand Wovens cooperatives. With the number of cooperative members being more than 1,000, more than one thousand households are benefiting from the development of tourism industry and they are on the way to wealth.(Reporter: Yang Chunyan; correspondent: Zhang Cheng)