In a village administered by the 13th regiment of the first division of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, in Ale, in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Zhao Yan, wearing a smock, uses a wooden pole to knock down red dates hanging on branches of the trees. It is hard to imagine that, just five years ago, she was a working woman wearing a business suit and high heels.

After she graduated from China University of Geosciences in 2013, Zhao was admitted to a master's program at Australian National University (ANU), in Canberra, capital of Australia. She became a journalist after she graduated from ANU.

In 2015, Zhao and other journalists, from Australia and New Zealand, were invited by the Information Office of China's State Council to conduct interviews in western China. Zhao was surprised to learn many great changes had taken place in Xinjiang. At that time, she thought about returning home and starting a business. "It is better to be a builder of my hometown than to work away from home in a foreign country," she thought.

Zhao returned to her hometown in 2017. After hearing about Zhao's idea of starting her own business, Zhao's twin brothers, Zhao Dongshuai and Zhao Dongsai, returned home, from Beijing and Sanya, in South China's Hainan Province, to support their sister. The three young people established a farmers' professional cooperative to grow and sell red dates.

"My parents have been planting red dates, and they have a red-date-processing factory. The dates in my hometown are known for their sweet and mellow taste. I'd like to try my best to sell the dates to the rest of the country," Zhao Yan says.

In 2020, she met Hu Rong, also a native of Ale, who later became her e-commerce business partner. They established an e-commerce company, and they opened dried-fruit and fresh-fruit stores on Pinduoduo, an e-commerce platform. Zhao Yan is responsible for ensuring the good quality of the fruits, while Hu is responsible for online operations and sales.

Walnuts and red dates are the most popular products in their stores. The fresh-fruit store's sales reached more than 1 million yuan (US $153,846) in the first month, and more than 10 million yuan (US $1.53 million) in the first six months. The dried-fruit store's sales reached more than 1 million yuan in the first three months, and surpassed 20 million (US $3.08 million) by the end of 2020.

Zhao Yan has organized several livestreaming activities in Ale, Turpan and Markit, and those events helped farmers sell more than 100 tons of walnuts and red dates combined. Through several years of hard work, her cooperative has helped nearly 100 households sell red dates, and increase their incomes.

Xinjiang is located in the remote, northwestern part of China. Finding a way to improve the circulation system of agricultural products used to be a problem that concerned Zhao Yan. Now, she uses e-commerce platforms to market and distribute a "super short chain of Xinjiang goods," to reduce intermediate sales links.

First, Zhao Yan built a 26,000-square-meter factory in Ale so she could process the fruits. Then, she established a 3,860-square-meter warehouse in Wugong County, in Northwest China's Shaanxi Province, to store the agricultural products from Xinjiang. The products are packaged and stored in the warehouse before being delivered to consumers.

"It only takes two or three days for consumers to receive their goods after they submit their orders online. It saves about three or four days compared with delivery from Xinjiang," Zhao Yan says proudly.

"The farmers of previous generations worked with sickles and hoes to turn the Gobi Desert into an oasis. As new farmers, we are taking advantage of the Internet and new agricultural techniques to deliver our agricultural products, grown in the oasis, to people across the country. I think I am like a desert poplar. Although it is dry in the desert, the desert poplar can still grow strong and beautiful," Zhao Yan says.

It is Zhao Yan's wish to promote and sell Xinjiang agricultural products across the country, and throughout the world. "I have never regretted my decision to return home and start my own business. The outside world is wonderful, but Xinjiang is my home. It is a very happy thing to be able to start a business and accompany my parents in my hometown," Zhao Yan says.

Photos Supplied by Zhao Yan

(Women of China English Monthly July 2022 issue)