GUIYANG — China's burgeoning big data industry and digital economy have not only revolutionized the lives of urbanites with emerging technologies, but also transformed the country's rural areas.

Southwest China's Guizhou province, which once had the largest impoverished population in China, is now the country's major big data hub.

As China's first national big-data comprehensive pilot zone, Guizhou has been promoting the big-data industry as a backbone of its high-quality social and economic development.

It is making farming a smart technology.

At a tea plantation base in Pu'an county of the province, digital devices are collecting real-time data from the tea garden and offering scientific support for tea growing.

With the help of big data, the garden has seen improved yield and better white tea, which have boosted the income of the local farmers.

The big data industry has also helped streamline the production of many enterprises.

Individual residents are also benefiting from the big data industry.

Guizhou has built telemedicine platforms in rural areas that enable villagers to consult doctors sitting far away in city hospitals.

According to the local government's plans, the total output value of the province's big-data and electronic information industry will exceed 350 billion yuan (about $52 billion) by 2025, with the digital economy accounting for around half of its GDP.