30 Under 30 – Rural Roots, Global Reach: Young Entrepreneurs Bringing E-Commerce to Villages
How Xie Lan, a 22-year-old entrepreneur from Henan, turned her village into a Taobao success story.
📝 By Liang Chen | Senior Economic Correspondent
From Farmland to Online Marketplaces
Xie Lan (22) grew up in a farming family in Henan province, where life revolved around planting wheat and raising chickens. Like many rural children, she watched friends migrate to coastal cities for jobs, while her village struggled with low incomes.
But when she discovered Taobao Villages (淘宝村) — Alibaba’s model of rural e-commerce clusters — Xie saw a chance to transform her hometown. With just a second-hand laptop and her parents’ kitchen as her first “warehouse,” she began selling homemade chili sauces and dried vegetables online.
Building a Taobao Village Cooperative
Within two years, Xie expanded her small shop into a Taobao cooperative, pooling products from neighbors — from embroidered shoes to organic honey. Her store now ships to cities across China and even to overseas buyers through cross-border e-commerce platforms.
What makes Xie stand out is her focus on branding rural products. Instead of generic packaging, she uses storytelling: every jar of sauce carries the line “Made in Henan’s Sunlit Fields.” She believes this emotional connection gives rural goods a premium identity.
Empowering Women and Youth
Xie’s initiative has created jobs for over 60 villagers, many of them women who previously had no steady income. She also runs weekend training sessions, teaching local youth how to take product photos, manage online shops, and respond to customer chats.
Her story resonates with China’s 乡村振兴 (Rural Revitalization Strategy), which encourages young people to bring innovation back to their villages. “I want my peers to see that success doesn’t only exist in Beijing or Shanghai,” Xie says. “It can start right here, in a small village.”
Recognition and Media Spotlight
In 2023, Xie Lan was recognized by China Youth Daily as one of the “Top 10 Young Rural Innovators.” She has since appeared on local TV programs showcasing her cooperative as a model for rural entrepreneurship.
Her work has also attracted attention from Alibaba’s Rural Taobao Program, which now provides training and logistics support to her village.
Challenges of Scaling Up
Despite success, Xie faces hurdles: rising logistics costs, counterfeit competitors, and the challenge of maintaining quality as demand grows. But she remains undeterred, often quoting a Chinese proverb: “慢工出细活 (slow work produces fine work).”
Her plan for the future is to expand into livestream e-commerce, allowing farmers to sell directly to consumers in real-time. She also hopes to introduce green packaging, aligning her cooperative with China’s sustainability goals.
A Rural Voice in a Digital Nation
For Xie, e-commerce is more than business — it’s a way to preserve and modernize rural life. “Our grandparents’ hard work in the fields gave us food,” she says. “Now, it’s our turn to give their work a digital stage.”
Her journey reflects the new face of rural China: proud of its roots, global in its reach, and driven by Gen Z ambition.
