Fresh goji berries are seen growing in fields in Hongsibu, Ningxia Hui autonomous region, on Sept 12, 2020. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Under the searing afternoon sunshine in Hongsibu of Wuzhong city, Ningxia Hui autonomous region, I crouched beside one of the hundreds of sage-green bushes in neat rows and ran my hand across the bright red goji berries, growing in a meandering string like Christmas lights tucked among the leaves. I felt a tiny thrill as I picked several fresh berries for the first time in my life, and then tasted them, savoring the mild flavor reminiscent of ripe persimmons.

My amazement, however, wasn't limited to finally encountering the fresh version of the dried fruit that had long been one of my indispensable kitchen staples. Nor was I merely astonished that one of the locals told me the land beneath my feet, like much of Hongsibu, was once inhospitable, desertlike territory over 20 years ago.

No, the most extraordinary thing about those fields is that they were the realization of the vision of Wang Hangdi, a local woman and entrepreneur who turned Ningxia’s most celebrated local specialty product into her calling card while leaving behind poverty, with the help of the internet.

Just as the prairie grasses and scrub have transformed once barren landscapes in Ningxia Hui autonomous region into a lush green, the internet has been at the forefront in creating new oases powering the region's poverty relief.

For Wang, the internet had long played a role in her pathway to prosperity, when she was still a migrant worker in Beijing sharing photos on her WeChat Moments of the dried goji berries from her hometown, easily double the size of any I had ever bought in the supermarket and so sweet as a snack that you could mistake them for a new variety of raisin.

The number of her friends and coworkers clamoring for these huge goji berries grew, and with their encouragement she returned to her hometown of Hongsibu to start a business with her husband to grow and package their own berries, supported by preferential government policies in everything from loans to land right usage.

Now she continues to rely on the internet to grow the business, such as doing a livestream direct from the fields to show people what a fresh goji berry looks like while promoting the brand of delectable dried fruit that now bears her name. And these efforts have created opportunities not just for her family but also others, who are no longer poor thanks to employment she offers, such as sorting and packaging dried goji berries in her workshop.

The author overlooking the grounds of a sheep ranch in Yanchi county, Ningxia Hui autonomous region, on Sept 11, 2020. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Like Wang Hangdi, everyone I met during my trip was leveraging the internet in some way for poverty relief.

On a high plateau in Xiamaguan village of Tongxin county, Wuzhong city in Ningxia, a local entrepreneur named Wang Dejun drove me through a dirt road beside the abundant waves of buckwheat, a sea of lovely white and pale pink flowers.

These were more fields of dreams, where buckwheat and other local specialty grains had become a business that involved growing, harvesting, packaging and selling them direct online through platforms such as Taobao and Kuaishou. And through the flourishing business, Wang Dejun has helped others out of poverty such as Wang Yongzhong, whose employment as factory manager afforded him a comfortable lifestyle in Xiamaguan village, worlds away from the past difficulties he once knew while living in a cave in the loess plateau.

The prairie highlands of Yanchi county in Wuzhong city, Ningxia, with an endless horizon that recalled breathtaking "big sky country" from my trips in the western US, was where I discovered a sheep ranch that added poverty relief and the internet to its corral. The ranch manager Feng Huan shared the story of returning to his hometown to carry on the family tradition of raising high-quality Tan sheep for meat -- with a modern twist.

People across China could purchase his sheep through an app developed for the business, and then track the animals through their lifetime at the ranch, which even installed cameras across the grounds so anyone could observe the sheep 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Meanwhile, Feng pointed out a special flock of sheep in his herd raised specifically to assist poor households -- all proceeds would go directly to impoverished families by paying for tuition or healthcare costs, or buying nutritious food for them.

In Minning, a community of willow trees and one-story brick houses home to migrants from destitute areas, I visited a factory packaging and selling local specialties, which also produced real-life Cinderella stories for the Hui women working there, such as Hai Yan. She had known hardship much of her youth, growing up in an arid, mountainous area deemed one of the most unfit places for human existence before she migrated to Minning and later became a housewife.

But it wasn't until entering the factory in September 2019 that she truly began to shine, after being trained and tapped to become one of the stars of its "Qiaoxifuer" livestreaming team, promoting local specialties that support poverty relief efforts on online platforms such as Kuaishou.

Thanks to the sales commissions from livestreaming, her income had climbed dramatically, along with her standing in the household as the new breadwinner. As her parents rediscovered the value of women and girls through Hai Yan's earnings, she envisioned a future running her own online business that would empower other hardworking young women to rise from poverty.

I know Wang Hangdi in Hongsibu would surely approve of Hai Yan's goal. After all, while sitting in her living room beside walls of gleaming packages of her goji berries, Wang Hangdi told me she wouldn't consider herself well off until everyone in her community thrives.

As she and others continue to plant more seeds of prosperity, Ningxia will become known not just for verdant landscapes that were once desert but also for the life-changing power of poverty relief supported by the internet.