E-commerce brings new opportunities to mountainous area

Users of Taobao- an online shopping website operated by Alibaba Group-can buy agricultural specialties from the Lvliang Mountains in North China’s Shanxi province, after the online pavilion of Lvliang Mountains officially opened on Oct 12.

Most of the Lvliang area is remote and poverty-stricken without mechanization or industry. However, thanks to the good environment, agricultural products from these areas are free from pollution.

The pavilion is an O2O e-commerce platform jointly established by Taobao and five counties in the Lvliang Mountains.

“The model pluses e-commerce with agricultural specialties creates development opportunity for poor areas,”said Cheng Wanjun, deputy head of Yonghe, one of the five counties.

The initiative was recognized as a new exploration for poverty relief through e-commerce. Now twenty kinds of local products are available at the shop, including dates, apples and pears.

An online exhibition was held at the same day as the pavilion’s opening.One percent of the sales will be donated to a charity project for students from poor families.