Special town with varied ethnic groups blooms with a rosy future

Jinlong, a village in Yunnan province's Lijiang city comprised of various ethnic migrant groups, has attracted an increasing amount of attention around the world for its unique design and special way of raising incomes for local farmers.

A new village established in 2006, Jinlong now is home to 20 hectares of fields of edible roses and more than 300,000 rose trees. Eighty percent of the houses in the village have been painted with pleasant colors and 3D wall paintings, all of which have earned Jinlong the names of "Rose Town" or "Fable Town".

Jinlong village in Lijiang, Yunnan province, is called "Rose Town" or "Fable Town" for its colorful houses and vast expanse of roses. [Photo/xinhuanet.com]

Breakthrough difficulties

Jinlong was once barren land that was allocated for neighboring villagers, mostly farmers, who wanted more space away from two national hydropower stations.

"People drew by lots to move to Jinlong and eventually we saw nine ethnic groups with nine different languages settled here," said Zhao Changxing, head of the migration authority in Lijiang.

In the beginning, farmers' incomes had decreased a lot and they had no way of creating any new business due to the lack of arable land, a Jinlong farmer said.

In 2014, with the aim of changing the industrial structure in the village, the provincial and city migration authorities began to encourage Jinlong farmers to grow edible roses, which are easy to be managed and offer a promising market.

"At first we earned 2,000 yuan ($304) from each mu (0.67 hectares) of roses and all of us were excited because we had made only 1,000 yuan from each mu of corn before we migrated to Jinlong," said Zhao Guifang, the director of the village committee.

Jinlong farmers are now in their fourth year of growing roses and have earned nearly 5 million yuan. The area of rose fields in the village is expected to reach 67 hectares soon.

Every household in Jinlong village grows roses. [Photo/Lijiang.cn]