Located north of Yazhou District, Baogu Village/抱古村 is one of many little known Li minority villages in rural Sanya until development of the beautiful countryside helped the village to upgrade ecological and farming systems and attract visitors.

The village aims to build itself into an ecotourism area and a base for eco-agriculture and help people shake off poverty by developing the ecological industry.

Poverty relief efforts began to bring about changes to Baogu Village in 2017. To help villagers shake off poverty, officials taking charge of poverty alleviation work made a detailed survey on the local geological condition. The finding shows that the local soil and weather are more suitable to grow high-yield economic plants, such as water lilies, than just coconut trees and betel nuts.

Therefore, the local government has decided to take advantage of local conditions and resorted to the ecological industry with low investment, quick return, and low labor intensity as the leading force for poverty alleviation. Therefore, they encouraged farmers to cultivate water lilies in large areas.

The village is also striving to strengthen brand-building for the water lily agriculture sector through optimizing agricultural structure. The village’s agricultural departments have hired specialized teams, supported professional cooperatives, improved the industrial chain, cultivated characteristic brands, and implemented an integrated business model of production, supply and marketing.

Today Boao Village has become a demonstration area for agritainment, drawing numerous visitors to its rural landscape and huge lotus ponds that stretching all the way to the edge of the sky. Baogu Village is one of the largest production zones of water lilies in Sanya. The village’s lotus pond occupies a total area of 106,666 square meters.