Over 80,000 natives of Fujian Province in eastern China now reside in the northwestern Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, while others, like entrepreneur Pan Hong, have traveled eastward to forge innovative business ties bridging her two homes, as the cross-regional partnership enters its 30th year.
Pan's story exemplifies this enduring collaboration. Now based in Xiamen, Fujian, she has devoted herself to promoting specialty products from her native Ningxia, building innovative business bridges that benefit both regions.
Blending ingredients from both provinces, Pan and her colleagues have developed new collaborative tea drinks. One combines Ningxia's goji berry juice and Xiamen's longan honey, while another uses black tea from Xiamen's Junying village and milk from Ningxia. These drinks have been well received in local Xiamen cafes. Pan and her team are continuing to develop more Fujian-Ningxia products.
"I have always paid attention to my hometown's specialty industries. Promoting them has become part of my life," said Pan.
A native of Haiyuan County in Ningxia, Pan came to Fujian in 2000 to study at Xiamen University, inspired by the province's hardworking spirit. After earning her postgraduate degree, she joined a local state-owned company and never lost touch with her roots.
In the summer of 2023, she heard news of watermelon oversupply back in Ningxia's Minning Town. Realizing her company's supermarkets sold these watermelons, she worked quickly to ramp up sales.
"Being able to help farmers and growers upstream, it is really meaningful work," said Pan.
Thanks to her efforts, more than 30,000 kilograms of unsold watermelons were shipped out, transported across provinces by cold chain, and placed on store shelves, all within just over 40 hours.
"Xiamen residents were so enthusiastic. Some people deliberately bought several watermelons because they found it meaningful. That's why we started contract farming, so we can plant in a more orderly way, matching the farmers to the market and solving this problem," said Pan.
After three decades of Fujian-Ningxia partnership, the flow of specialty products between the regions keeps growing. As her company readies to expand its e-commerce business, Pan now travels frequently between the two regions, making promotion of Ningxia's agricultural goods a central part of her work. In April, she led her team back to Ningxia to select new products, moving from just selling raw materials to developing and branding processed goods.
"Today, Ningxia's green electricity, its cool climate and vast land, and Fujian's booming digital economy, they complement each other. Ningxia is no longer just a raw materials supplier, and it's a key link in the industrial chain. The eastern and western regions are truly each other's strategic partners for development now, and their partnership is also very much in line with market rules," said Pan.
Entrepreneur strengthens Ningxia-Fujian partnership with local product trade
