A bee farmer checks his bee hive at a bee product area in Menyuan Hui Autonomous County, in Qinghai Province, on Thursday, July 12, 2007. [Photo: Xinhua]

With clean air and lots of sunshine, the Menyuan Hui Autonomous County in northwest China's Qinghai Province has become a major hub of Chinese pollution-free bee production.

Menyuan Hui Autonomous County lies on the eastern side of Qilian Mountain, the high mountain range that divides the northwestern provinces of Qinghai and Gansu. Enjoying a high altitude geographical location and long hours of daily sunshine, Menyuan has a pollution-free natural environment which is ideal for growing rape. Menyuan now grows about 20 thousand hectares of rape plant, whose flowers are extremely beneficial for bee raising and honey production.

Xinhua News reports that Menyuan has made great efforts in recent years to develop its pollution-free bee product industry. They have improved the living conditions of bee farmers, organized honey purchasing networks and set up bee product processing enterprises.

The move has also helped attract an inflow of additional bee farmers from other parts of the country, and there has also been increasing overseas investment in the local bee product industry.

(CRI July 13, 2007)