More plans

Liu said the influence of her micro blog was beyond her expectations initially, but now, she has already become accustomed to using it to communicate with her students, villagers and friends.

Her next plan for Nanjiushuicun to further raise their standard of living is to sell dried persimmons and chestnuts through the villagers' micro blog.

A future project will include the sale of pullet chickens and their eggs through the micro blog, if their numbers increase to a point where such a sale is economically viable.

According to Liu, many young villagers are now considering micro-blogging as a new method of promoting agricultural products, and they are looking for business opportunities through the fashionable platform.

"Food safety has become a serious problem in Chinese cities, but natural foods from villages such as Nanjiushuicun can be made available to the market through an established means of transport. We use the micro blog to set up a bridge between consumers and villagers. It is a win-win solution," Liu said.

Uneven road

However, Liu and the villagers have also met with some problems. Although a logistics company called Shanghai Yuantong Express (Logistics) Co Ltd has offered the lowest price to deliver Nanjiushuicun's walnuts to customers, the villagers will still lose money if orders from distant places such as South China's Hainan and Guangdong provinces keep rising, because of the high transport costs. The village is about 2,000 kilometers from those southern markets.

Fortunately, the company will provide a VIP service for this project to ensure that all the buyers can receive products as quickly as possible, because the company also wants to help the villagers, said Wang Yunyun, head of the company's marketing management center.

She has even encouraged her colleagues to order the walnuts.

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Zhao Yan, a clerk in Beijing, has ordered 10 kilograms of walnuts. He said that initially he was worried about whether the walnuts could be delivered on time, and if not, how he could obtain a refund. However, he made up his mind when the village opened an account on taobao.com, a major online shopping website owned by China's top e-commerce dealer Alibaba Group, which offers a refund service.

"I like their way of selling agricultural products because I can see the pictures of the walnuts growing almost every day on the micro blog. The feeling is fresh and interesting," he said. "In addition, I feel I have helped them to build a road that is important for their future development."

Liu said she talks with Li every day through an online video connection and gives him suggestions for conducting the business using this new technology.

"Being a teacher, my greatest satisfaction comes from helping these people to use their intelligence to raise their standard of living and create wealth," Liu said. "They just need a little help and then they can accomplish much more."