A village in Xihaigu, an area in northwest China that was once declared “uninhabitable” by the United Nations, has attracted international acclaim because of its green transformation.
Parsley juice might not sound too appealing, but it found a fan in French consultant Daniel Vial. When Vial visited Jiao’s booth, he tried the juice, gave it a thumbs up and said, “Fantastic taste!”. In the water-starved Xihaigu area, the per capita water resources accounted for less than 8% of the national average level. It was declared as “uninhabitable” by UN experts in 1972.
Based on the mountainous terrain, villagers have built terraced vegetable fields and oil peony farms. They have also constructed science and technology museums as well as traditional cave-dwelling hotels with local characteristics. Longwangba’s story has been documented in Carnets De Chine , a documentary jointly produced by Chinese and French media. It will be aired on leading French media France TV and TV5 Monde.