Over 230 hectares of lotuses are flourishing in the Qintang district of Guigang, a city in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.
Since 2014, when a lotus park was set up in Qintang, more than 350 varieties of lotuses have been introduced there, drawing heavy tourism. Last year, over 700,000 people visited the park, enriching local villagers.
According to statistics from the district government, 3,200 residents from 900 families escaped poverty due to the lotus park, which directly offered over 600 job opportunities and boosted other service facilities like restaurants, homestays, and stores in the neighborhood.
The administration of the park pays villagers 19,500 yuan ($2,780) a year for each hectare of pond area. In addition, each hectare produces over 30 metric tons of lotus roots, which are important ingredients in Chinese cuisine and offer villagers extra income. In Longfeng village, one of the villages where the park is located, the annual income per-capita last year reached 8,700 yuan, and infrastructure in the village has also greatly improved since 2014.
In 2018, the park was rated as an AAAA-level tourist destination, the country's second highest rating.
