YINCHUAN, Nov. 6 (Xinhua) -- Wu Juan looked a little out of place in the radish field. She wore a business suit and high heels, standing on an earthen ridge beneath the Helan Mountains in northwest China as she conducted a mock auction in Chinese and English.
Her auction lots were white radishes piled on the field ridges. Wu presented them with flair and ceremony, as if they were fine works of art.
The video attracted more than a million views, giving Wu, a farmer's daughter and former international flight attendant, an unexpected opportunity to put her hometown's produce to a wider audience.
Now in her mid-30s, Wu lives in Minning, a town in northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. Known online as "Minning Girl," her videos have featured everything from freshwater bass and locally raised sheep to cabbages she likens to precious jade, and local wines she introduces in an evening gown.
Her connection with Minning goes back to 1998, when Wu was seven and her family traveled some 400 kilometers by coach from Xiji County, part of the rugged Xihaigu region in southern Ningxia, to a newly established town at the foot of the Helan Mountains.
That town was Minning, established under a pairing initiative launched in 1996 between the coastal province of Fujian and landlocked Ningxia, as part of China's east-west poverty alleviation collaboration program. The project aimed to help families from Ningxia's impoverished southern mountains build new lives elsewhere.
There was little to welcome them when they arrived. Wu's family of six crowded into a relative's small home, while her parents took jobs painting walls and carrying bricks, saving what they could until they could afford to build their own home.
Despite the hardship, her parents bought her a cassette player and English-language tapes. Wu listened and repeated the words, practicing whenever she had a spare moment.
She became the first in her family to attend university, studying English at Shandong University. After graduating in 2014, she joined Xiamen Airlines as a flight attendant, serving on international routes.
Two years later, she gave up the job and returned to Minning.
"I got the chance to go out and to see the world outside," she said. "But after seeing the world, I realized that my hometown maybe needed me more."
At first, Wu struggled to find her footing before a chance encounter with a local official gave her an idea: Why not put her skills to work promoting the agricultural products of her hometown?
Minning itself was changing. Greenhouses and vineyards were taking root on once-barren land, while e-commerce and tourism were opening up new opportunities for local residents.
Wu began making videos, writing the scripts, operating the camera and editing the footage herself. She took her inspiration from fine-art auctions, bringing their sense of ceremony to the fields where the produce was grown.
"My parents and my grandparents, they're all farmers," she said. "So I present it carefully as artwork. I want to let people know the true value. Or the hard work behind it."
Her videos have drawn more than 5 million views. Buyers elsewhere in China have placed orders after watching them, while some overseas viewers have asked whether Ningxia products could be shipped to their countries.
Wu carries a small notebook, recording what local farmers grow and how much they produce. When potential buyers get in touch online, she passes along the farmers' contact details.
When Wu visits local farms, growers often press corn and pumpkins into her hands. Villagers greet her with a familiar call: "Juan, you're back! Have you eaten?"
"English is just a tool in my hands," she said. "Chinese helps our hometown's products reach more people, while English helps us welcome the world." ■
