CHANGCHUN: Yanbian, the only autonomous prefecture of China’s Korean ethnic group in northeastern Jilin Province, has cast off poverty.
By June, all five impoverished counties in the prefecture, including four state-level ones, were lifted out of poverty. Thanks to measures including developing industries like cattle raising, edible fungus planting and tourism, the poverty rate of the prefecture dropped from 12.2 percent at the end of 2015 to 0.05 percent now, according to the poverty alleviation office of the prefecture.
China aims to eradicate absolute poverty by 2020.
In the traditional Korean farming culture, cattle used to be so important that many farmers even spared a room as the cowshed. Although machines have replaced livestock for plowing in modern times, cattle are still considered quite a “cash cow” in the prefecture.
By raising Yanbian yellow cattle, a crossbreed between the local and French Limousin breeds, Liu Jingyi brought home an additional income of 40,000 yuan a year due to higher prices for quality beef.
“I used to raise cattle to make ends meet. Now it has brought me wealth,” said Liu, a villager in the Dongshengyong Township in Yanbian’s Longjing City.
Steak and other beef products are sold to more than 50 five-star hotels at up to 200 yuan per kg, three times the price of ordinary beef.
In 2019, the total number of cattle raised in the prefecture reached 167,000, according to the government of Yanbian.
Located in the mountainous area at the border of China, Russia and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Yanbian is one of the most impoverished areas in Jilin Province. Nearly 36 percent of the prefecture’s population is ethnically Korean. – Agencies
