LANZHOU, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- Harvest season is bringing swathes of honeydew melons to Li Minzhong, a farmer in Minqin County, an artificial oasis located between Badain Jaran and Tengger, China's two major deserts covering 85,000 square km in total.

Thanks to the dry and hot desert climate, the county in northwest China's Gansu Province now nourishes the very best soil for planting honeydew melons. The melons are the most sought after across the country for their sweet taste, crisp texture and rich aroma.

Currently, the county boasts a total plantation area for melons exceeding 13,000 hectares, and farmers in its major production area can earn around 30,000 yuan (about 4,640 U.S. dollars) annually.

However, the local residents are not born with the mouthwatering career of melons but armed with it through their own decade-long endeavor.

Minqin county was once dubbed "sand town," when raging sandstorms used to plague the locals all year round and even sometimes block the sun.

Li still remembers those dark days when the fury of sandstorms uprooted his seedlings of melons, condemning the man to replant the melons over and over again.

To mint money by planting melons was almost crying for the moon for the locals, said Li.

Starting from the 1950s, people in Minqin County began the race to conquer the harsh environment and battle the worsening desertification.

Massive straw checkerboard barriers and shelter forests were built, with corresponding water-saving efforts made, lifting the county's forest coverage rate from merely 3 percent in the 1950s to the current 18.21 percent.

For more than seven decades of the relay race against the desert, a shelterbelt of more than 300 km running parallel with the 408 km of desert stormfront has been established, protecting the local residents from extreme weather and unveiling the cash bonanza of sweet melons.

On July 20, the county held its annual ceremony to celebrate this year's good harvest of honeydew melons, signaling the beginning of the melon's peak selling season to nationwide fruit merchants.

More than 30 Internet celebrities were also attracted to the remote county to promote products via livestreaming, while dozens of e-commerce businesses settled in the Shoucheng Village, Li's hometown.

"We are growing new varieties and improving our planting standard on a trial basis. For example, some trenches along the melons are designed to save more water, which has helped reduce 40 percent of the original water consumption," said Chen Fang, deputy director of the county's agriculture and rural affairs bureau.

Liu Xianghai, a wholesaler from north China's Shanxi Province, hails the melon produced in Minqin.

"With more scientific planting standards and more convenient logistics, the local melon harvest in recent years is of high quality and they have become more popular in the market," Liu said.

He added that over 30 tonnes of honeydew melons that are transported every day from Minqin to Taiyuan City, capital of Shanxi Province, would be sold out the same day.

The county is estimated to record a total output of honeydew melons of around 400,000 tonnes this year, bringing in about 1.44 billion yuan.

"A bumper harvest that will bring fortune to the local farmers is in sight," Chen said. Enditem