Liping village in Shangyu town, Jiangshan, a county-level city in Quzhou, Zhejiang province, spent 7 million yuan ($1 million) building a workshop integrating planting, production, sales and sightseeing, turning the traditional brown sugar industry into a local characteristic industry.

Liping village has been growing sugarcane since the 1950s. It has a long history of sugar pressing and retains complete ancient manual sugar making technology. It is known as the "No 1 brown sugar village in western Zhejiang".

Workers make brown sugar in a workshop in Liping village, Shangyu town, Jiangshan, a county-level city in Quzhou, Zhejiang province. [Photo/zjol.com.cn]

In recent years, the village has received a total of 22 million yuan in investment to reconstruct its brown sugar warehouse and build a sugar garden integrating brown sugar displays, tourism, night tours, and a family amusement park.

By the end of 2023, the scale of sugarcane growing in Liping village is expected to expand three-fold, and annual sales of brown sugar products are expected to reach 20 million yuan, providing more than 200 jobs for villagers.