East China Farmers Go OnlineLi Wenlong, a farmer from Hongtang Village, a part of Ningbo, this coastal city in east China's Zhejiang Province, received an e-mail recently from a supermarket in Shanghai ordering 2,000 kilograms of vegetables.Li is only one of 30,000 farmers in Ningbo who are doing online business transactions. Hua Oucong, a female farmer in Ningbo, raised thousands of peacocks. Last year, her son helped her post advertisements on the Internet. Orders have been pouring in from every corner of the country, and over 1,500 peacocks have been sold. With the help of the Internet, farmers from Ningbo are also selling their bamboo shoots, greengages (plums), peaches and clamworms to other provinces and cities. Some of their farm produces are even sold abroad. Sun Denglin is one of the first Internet users among the local farmers. Three years ago, he reached a million-dollar deal with an European customer via e-mail. Officials here say the Internet has helped farmers sell their farm produce to over 20 countries and regions in the world. The farmers themselves say the information superhighway has built "a bridge that leads them to fortune." |
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