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Aerial photo taken on May 9, 2019 shows the scenery of the terraced fields in Changxing Village of Changsha Township in Chishui, southwest China's Guizhou Province. (Xinhua/Yang Wenbin)
In the mountainous city of Chishui, southwest China's Guizhou Province, a distinctive, rocky red surface known as the Danxia landform covers more than two-thirds of the city. For local farmers, the rocks used to be a stumbling block for crop plantation, and the limited soil was a prized item.
"In the past, people would edge each other out for a patch of soil to grow traditional crops such as corn because you couldn't possibly grow crops on rocks," said Li Shouqin, head of the township of Wanglong. "They would even dig through the cracks of rocks just to get a patch of soil."
A change could not come fast enough.
These days, the rocky red landscape shines brightly in the rural areas of Chishui thanks to a government initiative to encourage the growth of dendrobium nobile, a valuable Chinese herbal medicine found in the rocks.
"Now, people are looking for the rocks to grow dendrobium nobile," Li said.
Currently, dendrobium nobile covers more than 6,000 hectares in the city, increasing the salaries of about 16,000 residents in poverty.
The green-leaved dendrobium nobile plants, with shoots like human knuckles, can grow on wood or rocks. Interestingly, those that grow from the rocks have the highest quality. The plants enjoy high temperatures and humidity, and their shoots are an important ingredient of traditional Chinese medicine. They are known to have the medicinal effect of driving away excessive heat from the human body.
In Chishui, the red Danxia rocks are soft and easy to cut. The city has an average annual temperature of 18 degrees Celcius, and its average yearly relative humidity is 82 percent, perfect for the growth of dendrobium nobile.
But the industry went through a bottleneck before it skyrocketed.
In the 1990s, locals grew dendrobium nobile on a small scale, but most of the seedlings were introduced from the neighboring Yunnan Province and did not grow very well in Chishui.
In 2006, experts made a breakthrough by cultivating a new variant of seedlings, allowing the plants to grow very well on the Danxia rocks. With the support of the local government and major companies, locals began to grow the seedlings on the red rocks on a large scale.
The method for cultivation is unique. The farmers use ropes to bind the roots of the seedlings together and use nails to embed the roots into the rock cracks. In this way, the plants can grow solidly and can withstand wind and rain, while efficiently absorbing the nutrients from the rocks and air.
"Dendrobium nobile is an environment-friendly industry," said the city's mayor Tan Hai. "Farmers can reap the first harvest within three years, and each hectare can provide more than 3,000 kg of dendrobium nobile."
Tan said that the plants could be harvested for more than 10 years, and both their shoots and flowers have economic values.
"The annual value can reach more than 150,000 yuan (21,195 U.S. dollars) per hectare," Tan said.
Local farmer Wen Jianhua has grown more than 13 hectares of dendrobium nobile. The plants grow from red rocks that have been cut into slices and placed into lines.
Wen has hired impoverished local residents to help pick weeds and attend the plants.
"I sell 90 percent of the plants online," Wen said.
He also shares the process and techniques of growing the plants on video-sharing app Douyin, also known as TikTok. Wen has about 125,000 followers on Douyin.
Wen and his wife have been in this business for eight years. In March alone, he managed to rake in more than 100,000 yuan through online sales.
"My wife is in charge of customer service, filming the plants and taking care of our child," Wen said as he looked to his wife, who was carrying their baby in a bamboo basket on her back while contacting their client on the phone.
The green shoots of prosperity have grown out of the rock cracks in Chishui thanks to dendrobium nobile. In 2017, the city became the first of the poverty-stricken localities in the province to cast off poverty thanks to the industries of the plants as well as bamboo trees.
Liu Qingping is one of the people who rode on the back of that success. Liu, who lost his right arm in an accident in 2011, started growing dendrobium nobile and bamboo with the help of the local government.
Every day, he climbs up the mountain behind his house with a ladder and clears the weeds so that his dendrobium nobile on the rock cliff can thrive.
"I nailed the plants into the rock cliff myself, one by one," he said. "I have already started selling the shoots this year."
With dendrobium nobile and bamboo trees, Liu said he could make enough money to support his family of seven.
"Life is full of challenges, and I have met mine," he said. "With the help of the government, I went through everything, and I can face up to the future more optimistically."
