NPC deputy transforms Pinggu's peach industry

Yue Qiaoyun (center) hosts a livestream session with fellow villagers in Pinggu district, Beijing. (Photo courtesy of Yue Qiaoyun)

In her office in Pinggu district, Beijing, Yue Qiaoyun's phone rang with a steady stream of calls from farmers seeking advice. She answered each one patiently, all the while sorting through research materials, her face glowing with satisfaction

"Seeing villagers' incomes rise makes me genuinely happy," she said. It was a simple sentiment, but one that cut to the heart of who she is: someone driven by a sincere desire to give back to her community.

Yue was elected as a deputy to China's National People's Congress (NPC), the country's top legislature, in 2023 and has since received several honorary titles, including being named one of the country's Top Ten Farmers. She has spent a decade remaking herself, trading a career as an urban executive for life as a new farmer. Since returning home in 2016, she has helped Pinggu's signature peaches find new markets and boost all-round rural revitalization.

A map of Pinggu's agriculture, culture and tourism resources lies open on her desk. With China's "two sessions," the annual sessions of the top legislature and political advisory body, about to get underway in Beijing, Yue is putting the finishing touches on her proposals.

"This year I've focused on two proposals, both grounded in what I've seen at the grassroots level," she said.

The first calls for stronger policy support for agricultural services, so that farmers can access professional help in technology, logistics and marketing. Pointing to Beidian village in Liujiadian town on the map — her hometown and where she first started her business — she noted that her farmers' cooperative already serves more than 3,000 fruit-growing households, but that policy backing is essential to bring these services to more orchards across the district.

Photo shows Yue Qiaoyun. (Photo courtesy of Yue Qiaoyun)

Her second proposal focuses on rural tourism. She pointed to several spots on the map, including Taohuawu and Jinhai Lake.

"I've done enough field research to know how much people here want to see rural tourism thrive," she said. "I'm recommending deeper support for integrating rural tourism with educational tours." What farmers are hoping for, she said, is more hands-on help with planning, design and market access, so that picturesque villages can do more than draw visitors in and actually translate that foot traffic into lasting income for local residents.

She picked up a gift box of Pinggu peach products from her desk, its contents arranged neatly inside: dried peaches, peach juice, peach-wood crafts and peach blossom brooches. The box, she said, embodied her model of integrating cultivation, processing, sales and leisure.

Her understanding of rural industries was shaped by a deliberate choice made a decade ago. Yue grew up picking and selling peaches alongside her parents before leaving her hometown to build a career in the internet and media sectors. But as China stepped up efforts to promote agricultural modernization, a long-dormant desire to return home grew impossible to ignore.

In 2016, she came back, bringing with her the networks and perspective she had accumulated over the years. She started with a peach orchard in Beidian village and gradually built something much larger. "I could see that farming wasn't the old game of praying for good weather anymore. It's becoming a real industry, with a real future," she said.

"None of Pinggu's transformation would have happened without favorable policies. I'm both a contributor to all-round rural revitalization and someone who has benefited from it," Yue said.

The evidence is visible in the peach orchards themselves. In early spring, rows of soil sensors and smart irrigation equipment stand between the trees — technology that has fundamentally changed how peaches are grown in Beidian village.

"We used to water and fertilize by feel. Now we let the data tell us what to do," she said. In the early days, the equipment looked like alien hardware to most farmers, so she bought devices out of her own pocket and gave them away for free, promising to cover any losses from reduced yields. Gradually, a growing number of farming households began to adopt the new technologies.

Yue Qiaoyun shows a Pinggu peach in Pinggu district, Beijing. (Photo courtesy of Yue Qiaoyun)

Her cooperative's fresh peach output and sales have climbed steadily year after year. Peaches now reach customers across the country within 48 hours and into overseas markets, with total sales surpassing 100 million yuan ($14.58 million).

Through the cooperative's e-commerce platform, she has helped 1,500 neighboring fruit farmers find jobs and conducted online and offline e-commerce training totaling 51,000 person-times over four years. She has also nurtured more than 80 rural livestreamers, enabling more than 3,000 farming households to use digital farming tools.

"When she first set up the cooperative, we were all worried about losing money — none of us knew what to expect," said Yue Qinggui, a local farmer. To put people's minds at ease, Yue led technicians from door to door, offering hands-on guidance and a firm promise: unified purchasing, unified sales and a guaranteed floor price.

"My family's income has doubled compared with previous years. With her leading the way, you feel like you're on solid ground," Yue Qinggui said.

Inspired by her example, growing numbers of local farmers have joined the cooperative, sharing access to technologies, sales channels and brand dividends. Today, Yue's cooperative has become a national model.

Under Yue's leadership, lower-income farming households now earn an average annual income of 60,000 to 70,000 yuan, bringing what once seemed an out-of-reach figure of over 100,000 yuan a year well within reach.