Chinese farmers dig gold from Christmas decorations

To more than 7,000 farmers in a small town in east China's Jiangsu Province, December 24 is happy day to check their bulgy wallets while tens of millions of families in Europe and America celebrate the Christmas Eve.

Farmers living in Xiaoguanzhuang Town, in central Jiangsu, produced approximately 100 million Christmas decorations this year that have been exported to a dozen foreign countries. "They earned close to 400 million yuan (approximately 48.36 million US dollars) from exports," said Yang Shouhong, an official overseeing industrial sector of Xiaoguanzhuang Town.

Yang, the official, said that Xiaoguanzhuang has seen a 25 percent increase in its Christmas decoration industry in the past two years, and sales income this year is 100 million yuan (12.09 million US dollars) more than that for last year.

The town now has 45 large businesses and more than 400 processing workshops, producing more than 100 kinds of Christmas decorations ranging from Christmas trees to deer-driving carts to angels.

Xiaoguanzhuang Christmas decorations are being sold in more than 20,000 chain stores of Wal-Mart, Metro and Carrefour in Europe, America and Asia, Yang said.

Approximately 80 percent of the Christmas decorations purchased in the United States reportedly come from China.

Source: Xinhua