Huguan county in North China's Shanxi province has been integrating its herbal tea industry with the tourism industry in recent years, to promote the development of rural tourism and help locals out of poverty by increasing their incomes.

To date, 17 kinds of traditional Chinese medicine or Chinese herbal medicine have been planted by more than 3,000 households in over 130 villages, covering over 200 square kilometers.

Nanpingtouwu village -- located 39 kilometers southeast of the county seat and with a dense vegetation and a pleasant climate -- has firmly grasped the opportunities of combining tourism with the herbal tea industry.

In 2016, the village adopted a plan and painted all the houses and walls in the village. And as a result, the vibrantly colored village increasingly caught the attention of tourists.

Meanwhile, the herbal tea factory in the village helped some 100 local households increase their monthly incomes by over 1,000 yuan ($142) in 2019 by getting them to help in planting, processing and selling forsythia tea.

"We sold 600 kilograms of forsythia tea this June with the sales reaching 360,000 yuan," said Guo Xiaojun, head of the factory which expanded its operations and increased herbal tea output to 3 metric tons this year.

Looking to the future, Guo said more tourists will get to know herbal tea industry in Huguan county and in particular Nanpingtouwu village, as the factory is building a tea culture exhibition area.