Professor Xie Hongjiang (1st R) compares an apple grown in the standardized apple cultivation demonstration park with the one grown by the villagers in Lingpa Village of Chanag Township in Mainling County of Nyingchi City, southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, Oct. 27, 2019. Since 2014, Xie Hongjiang and his team have visited Tibet more than 40 times to help modernize local apple orchards. The 46-year-old doctor has studied plateau apple cultivation for 12 years. He is warmly welcomed by the locals in Nyingchi City, as he always finds ways to share his theories with villagers. There are over 1,500 hectares of apple orchards in Mainling, a county that is administered by Nyingchi. But "over 80 percent were not very productive," said County Chief Cewang Nyima. Not only did Xie Hongjiang's team offer workable solutions to issues that had been troubling villagers for years, the new techniques had the added bonus of reducing fertilizer, labor and land use by half. "The conditions here are particularly favorable for growing organic apples," the professor said. The proof, as they say, is in the pudding; and these former small and sour apples are now big and sweet -- perfect for an apple pie! (Xinhua/Purbu Zhaxi)