Communist slogans were visible in the once-backward Chinese community of Donglou only five years ago, but that was before farmers swapped their tractors for Audis as the online revolution transformed the village into a "Taobao village". China's online shopping revolution has created hundreds of "Taobao villages" - farming communities transformed by a consumer-to-consumer site of the same name that is run by Alibaba, China's equivalent of Amazon."Escape from the hard life through Taobao," reads one slogan on a former agricultural storage warehouse that now houses rows of sewing machines."E-commerce thrusts you down the happy road," it continues.The busiest online shopping day by far is November 11, or Singles Day.Last year, it was the biggest retail event in history with about R160-billion spent - more than double the US spending on Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined.That figure should be dwarfed this Friday, generating more cash for China's second-richest man, Alibaba owner Jack Ma, and the 1136 residents of Donglou.The once poor rural backwater in the eastern Shandong province has emerged as a booming hub for the online trade in party and fancy-dress clothing. More than 90% of villagers work in the sector.For three lifelong friends, the town's ascent from poverty has felt rapid. Before 2011, Ren Qingsheng was a farmer and electrician, earning ¥3000 (about R6000) a year. Yuan Dongliang, who traded wheat, earned a similar amount, while Ren Qingci planted corn, wheat and peanuts during 40 years of farming. Now they are clothing entrepreneurs, with a combined annual salary of £350000 (about R5.9-million).Qingsheng, the village chief, said Donglou's annual revenue was ¥150- million last year, and ¥160- million for the first half of this year . Donglou is one of 34 communities in Cao County Taobao Village c luster, the second-most successful in China, Alibaba says."To be honest, I did not trust selling goods online at first," said Qingsheng, who now makes £150000 a year selling costumes used for child photographic portraits. "How could you be sure you would get paid?"Qingci, 58, employs 12 staff in his business, which makes clothes for children's plays."My children introduced me to Taobao, so I built a family business for them to continue," he said.Dongliang, aged 49, who set up his business selling animal-themed children' s clothes four years ago said the online trading revolution was inevitable in China, and did not owe anything to Jack Ma ."I do not admire him," said Yuan, aged 49. "He just walked the right path at the right time, that is all." ..