"Here in our village, cactuses are used to keep safe of the yard. In 60 years there was no any theft ..." says a villager from Zhumadian in Henan province.

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In Pan Zhuang village in Zhumadian, 46 families' plant cactuses in their yards, on their walls, or in the fields, the cactuses are growing very well.

"It started by Xu Dao." says 83 years old Tao Xinglin. Xu Dao is a villager from Pan Zhuang village who used to live on harvesting and selling Chinese yam. In 1951, he brought a plant with yellow flowers back to the village form mountain where he harvested yams. He told his fellow villagers that this plant is called cactuse.

 "He planted the cactuse on his mud wall, within a few years, the wall was full of cactuses." says Tao. According to Tao, villagers took some new born cactuses from Xu, and they all had their cactuse walls within a few years.

"We all love the plant." says another villager, "Because of their guard, since 1951, there never happened any theft in our village. They are beautiful security doors. Our policemen."

Now the 81 years old Xu Dao who first brought in the guarding plant moved to live near the Yellow River. But the villagers never forget him and keep talking about his story of planting cactuses.

Even on the river basin and on the road of the village, cactuses are seen everywhere. "In the south of Yellow river, north of Yangtze River, Pan Zhuang village is the place with the densest cactuses." says forestry experts of Zhumadian. After more than 60 years multiplying, the amount of cactuses here is too big. "It is an exotic species which was originally living in Africa. It was first brought in China during Ming Dynasty. I think our next plan is to make some 'birth control' of this plant to make the growing of cactus and its multiplying under control." says the expert.