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Chinese Farmer Makes Fortune by Planting Trees
A Chinese farmer living in a village in northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region has become a millionaire by planting trees and growing medicinal herbs.
Shi Pinfa, a villager in Guyuan, one of the poorest counties in China, has made more than one million yuan (US$125,000) by selling saplings and herbs in the past 20 years.
Twenty years ago, Shi tried planting some Beijing poplar in his 3 mu (0.2 hectare) of land, earning 5,000 yuan (602 dollars) by the year's end. In the following seven years, he made more money by expanding the planting area and increasing the variety of trees. In 1989, Shi planted 100,000 Chinese pines in all his 36 mu (2. 4 hectares) of land after he found them both easy to grow and lucrative way to make money.
In 1998, he leased some land from his neighbor to grow medicinal herbs, and soon struck it rich.
Shi is concerned with the environment in his village, where excessive logging has made a nearby hill barren. He has a plan to plant trees on the hill and make it green again.
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