East-West cooperation a win-win plan

Capital and tech from Qingdao help Gansu cities exploit rich resources

Fifty-year-old farmer Su Haiying from Gansu province in Northwest China never imagined that one day she would become a brewer and support her family through an opportunity brought by a city located thousands of kilometers away in the east of China.

Su's hometown, Yuangudui village in Tianjiahe town, Dingxi, stands at an altitude of 2,400 meters above sea level. In the past, farming in this area was entirely dependent on weather conditions, yielding crops only in good years and facing losses in times of natural disasters.

The situation changed in November last year when a company from Qingdao city in Shandong province signed a contract with the village to establish a local craft beer project with an investment of over 1 million yuan ($140,000) in equipment, aiming to boost local tourism development.