GOING OUTSIDE

Tsihen, a Hongai villager, can't help but worry about his son, who is working in the provincial capital of Xining City.

"I often call him, telling him not to hang out with bad boys and not to get into trouble," the 45-year-old woman told Xinhua, as she sat on a sofa in her newly-decorated living room.

Working as an eatery waiter, the 19-year-old currently earns a monthly salary of about 1,000 yuan (about 152 U.S. dollars). The average monthly income of a Chinese farmer was about 493 yuan last year.

Besides hanging around or gambling, Tsihen's husband is doing odd jobs sometimes at construction sites.

The family, however, planned to make some quick money by picking caterpillar fungus, a valuable Chinese medicinal plant that grows on meadows at an elevation ranging from 2,800 meters to 5,400 meters.

In some drugstores in big cities like Beijing, every gram costs several hundred yuan.

"In April, we will head for major growing areas of caterpillar fungus in Qinghai. We expect to earn 40,000 to 50,000 yuan this year," Tsihen said, adding that many well-off families made a fortune this way.

However, they may still face a great risk since the local government has prohibited people from flocking to caterpillar fungus-rich areas because years of excessive harvests have jeopardized the already fragile ecological system of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

The government provides an alternative to make money for people looking to improve their lives. The government offers funds to teach people how to make stretched noodles, a Qinghai staple food which now gets increasing favor from urbanites.

"Running a snack bar in Xining can bring 20,000 to 30,000 yuan a year," said Liang Zhengxian, a Shihuiyao township official.

Also, to repair the ecological system damaged by excessive reclamation, half of the farmland in Hongai Village has been converted into forestry.

Advised by local agricultural offices, villagers began planting cash crops such as broad beans and rape on the remaining farmland, which brought families 10,000 to 20,000 yuan last year.

Now, almost each family in the village owns a TV set and a motorcycle, while some better-off villagers have bought automobiles and gain Internet access.

In 2010, the government subsidized all households in the village to rebuild homes and renovate courtyards.