Sea buckthorns are seen on the trees, in Wushi county, Aksu prefecture, Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

If you try to live a healthy life by taking vitamin C every day, what fruit springs to your mind first?

If it's kiwi fruit, you are strongly recommended to consider another that contains three to four times more vitamin C than the kiwi fruit - sea buckthorn.

In Wushi county, Aksu prefecture, on the northwest edge of Tarim Basin in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, the Gobi desert accounts for about a quarter of the area of the county.

Sea buckthorns are seen on the trees, in Wushi county, Aksu prefecture, Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

But unlike many who think it's a place where plants hardly grow, there are large number of sea buckthorn growing in Wushi, and it's even dubbed as the "hometown of sea buckthorn of China."

Sea buckthorn has been widely welcomed by consumers in overseas markets due to its rich nutrition, and in recent years, the fruit has also gained recognition in China.

Sea buckthorns are seen on the trees, in Wushi county, Aksu prefecture, Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

"The vitamin C in sea buckthorn fruit is much richer than that of fresh jujube and kiwi fruit. It is known as the 'king of vitamin C,' " Amina, a commentator at the Sea buckthorn Wetland Park, said. "The fruit has been turned into health food by local people in Xinjiang for a long time."

Aside from its nutritive value, sea buckthorn's roots are rather thick, which plays an important role in sand-fixing and soil erosion prevention in the arid region of Xinjiang.

Though the sea buckthorn fruits are small, their contributions are big - they make life more prosperous for the local people.

In the workshop of the Golden Buckthorn Company, workers examine each bottle of sea buckthorn juice on the assembly line. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

These little dark orange fruits create plenty of jobs in Wushi county, such as sea buckthorn planting and picking. Besides those, the fruit-processing companies set up here also bring more opportunities to make lives better for the locals.

In the workshop of the Golden Buckthorn Company, workers carefully examine each bottle of sea buckthorn juice on the assembly line.

A farmer collect sea buckthorn branches in a factory in Wushi county, Asku prefecture in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Nurali Amat is one of them. Several years ago, his family was still an impoverished household. In 2019, he got this job in the company, and began earning more than 3,300 yuan each month. And at the end of the same year, his family eradicated poverty.

"Last year, I introduced my wife to work here, too. Now we both have stable income and don't need to work outside our hometown," said Amat. "We want to create a better life for our 2-year-old daughter. "

A woman presents sea buckthorn juice. [Photo by Rizwangul Mamat/Provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Besides juice, sea buckthorns can also be used in products such as tea, oil, masks.

"In the next five years, we plan to introduce several sea buckthorn deep processing enterprises, enrich the variety of sea buckthorn products and establish various sales platforms," a person in charge of Forestry and Grass Bureau in the county said.

"We want to make sea buckthorn a symbol for Aksu region and even for the whole southern Xinjiang," the person said. "We believe the sea buckthorn industry will offer more employment chances to the locals."

Tourists take pictures of sea buckthorns. [Photo by Rizwangul Mamat/Provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Sea buckthorns are seen on the trees, in Wushi county, Aksu prefecture, Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. [Photo by Rizwangul Mamat/Provided to chinadaily.com.cn]