Short of arable land, the mountain town of Wantian in Guangxi resorted to developing the bamboo industry to help ethnic minority villagers relieve poverty.

Zhou Zhaozhao from the Yao ethnic group said her family was too poor to afford meat in the past. "Chili used to be our main dish every meal."

Things have changed since they began to make bamboo products. " My husband and I work on bamboo products and our income increases steadily. Now we have color TV and telephone in our newly-built house," Zhou said.

There are four ethnic groups in the town, the Yao, Zhuang, Miao and Han. The Yao people account for 40 percent of the town's population of 23,000.

Now every farmer household in the town plants bamboo. The 25 local bamboo-processing workshops have a total annual output value of 7.2 million yuan (US$867,000), and their products are selling well in China and Japan and Southeast Asian countries. The farmers' annual income per capita exceeds 2,400 yuan (US$ 289).

Guangxi is home to people from a dozen ethnic groups, most of them living in mountainous areas.

(Shanghai Daily 07/15/2001)