Exports rise

The provincial wine bureau said Ningxia had 211 wineries with 38,000 hectares of vineyards and annual output of 130 million bottles by the end of last year.

The output value of the regional wine industry reached 26 billion yuan last year, and Ningxia's wine has been exported to over 20 countries and regions, including Germany, the United States, Belgium and Australia.

The industry provides 120,000 jobs every year, and it accounted for 28 percent of the 900 million yuan earned by local farmers last year, the administrative committee said.

The 22 wineries in the region that are open to visitors receive over 600,000 visitors every year, so some of the jobs are related to tourism.

Chateau Zhihui Yuanshi, which helped to develop wine tourism, received 150,000 visitors last year, according to owner Yuan Hui. Last month, after the COVID-19 pandemic had been brought under control in Ningxia, groups of visitors from Yinchuan arrived on a sunny afternoon for tours and tastings at the picturesque winery, which was built on the ruins of a quarry and is decorated with various stones and types of wood.

After touring the facility and tasting different wines, the visitors were invited to purchase a few bottles. Xue Fei and her colleagues from Yinchuan visited as part of a team-building exercise. It was Xue's second visit to Zhihui Yuanshi and the second time she had bought wine there.

"This vintage tastes a little sweet and is fragrant, so I think it is suitable for women," she said, carefully pondering the sample. The 40-year-old real estate worker and wine buff said she and her colleagues were keen to buy some of the winery's produce.