Farmers noodle their way out of poverty
XINING — Many families from Qinghai province are casting off poverty using lamian, or hand-pulled noodles, a local specialty.
Qinghai’s hand-pulled noodle businesses generated revenue of 18 billion yuan ($2.6 billion) across China last year. Former farmers who became migrant workers earned a combined salary of nearly 4 billion yuan as a result, according to the human resources and social security department in the province.
Most of those engaged in the noodle business are from Haidong, a city with seemingly endless mountains and deep valleys, which also is known for prolonged droughts. It is one of the poorest areas in China.
In recent years, with government support, an increasing number of local farmers have gone to big cities like Beijing and Guangzhou to open noodle restaurants.
“In a poverty-stricken family with fewer than five members, as long as one of them is in the noodle business, all of them can shake off poverty,” said Yang Yi, head of the provincial human resources and social security department.
The province has granted loans of 1.12 billion yuan to about 15,000 locals in Haidong in recent years to help them start businesses, Yang said. It has set up about 90 agencies outside Qinghai to help its migrant workers obtain business certificates, get market information and provide for their children’s education.
By the end of 2016, Qinghai’s erstwhile farmers had opened some 29,000 lamian restaurants in 280 Chinese cities, accounting for about 40 percent of all such noodle
from Xining, Qinghai province, works in his business in Ningbo, Zhejiang province.
businesses in China.
The restaurants employed 182,000 of former Qinghai farmers, and their annual income per capita exceeded 20,000 yuan. Last year, about 4,000 poor ex-farmers newly employed in the business shook off poverty.
“We will continue to provide preferential policies to support business development in order to help people live better lives,” Yang said.
“The side road is much busier than the main highway because there is no restriction on the weight or speed of the vehicles,” said Xu’s husband, He Haijun, 30. “What’s more, it’s free.
“The turn is really a disgusting design that catches drivers off-guard, especially around midnight without lights. The drivers can hardly see our house.”
The couple still remember the first time a vehicle crashed into their yard. In the winter of 2010, they were awakened by a loud sound and found two beams of light shining through the window. The uninvited guest was a car.
In 2011, a warning sign with a Chinese character meaning “slow” was set up in front of the yard, but it has had little effect, they said.
“It has become a billboard covered with various advertisements,” a frustrated Xu said. “The most common one is for renting a crane for the stuck cars.”
Houses along the road have similar features — all except He’s, which has no short trees, stone bridges or Europeanstyle fences because they’ve all been damaged by cars.
After several replacements, the couple started choosing simple repairs.
In the yard, there are now several fortresses — a row of hollow bricks, a pile of coarse sand, a pile of smooth sand and an agricultural vehicle under the window of the house.
“They can’t prevent the cars from rushing into the yard, but they can slow them down and stop them before they enter our home,” He said.
Now, the couple’s biggest fear is the safety of their 7-year-old daughter.
“Every day we tell our daughter to pay attention and be safe. And we don’t allow her to play in the yard,” Xu said. “She can’t even make a snowman in the winter.”
In 2010, the couple began petitioning the government to provide a safe place to live, but the problem wasn’t solved until it was reported by media, they said.
Contact the writers at zhouhuiying@ chinadaily.com.cn