Delisting

By December, only 778 people in Huichang were still living in poverty, a marked decline from the 80,000-plus recorded in 2013. Huichang was taken off the list of national-level poverty-stricken counties on April 28 last year.

The challenge ahead is to ensure that people are capable of standing on their own feet. Preventing them from slipping back into poverty is as important as getting them out of it, Li Weiming said.

To create stable work and business opportunities, the county has ploughed poverty alleviation funds into the construction of small industrial parks located near villages and also used preferential policies to attract labor-intensive businesses.

Since 2007, the Huichang authorities have encouraged villagers to plant navel oranges and tangelos, which have higher added value. Thanks to the unpolluted environment and clean water, the high-quality fruits have become increasingly popular.

Since navel oranges and tangelos can only be harvested once a year, the authorities decided to support development of another agricultural product－baby pumpkins.

After successful trials, many villagers became involved in the business last year. The move was aimed at offering villagers more opportunities to raise their incomes and help them stay out of poverty.

With the right businesses, people can make more money in rural areas than in cities, according to Wu Tao, deputy head of Mazhou township. "People have started to change their perception of villages. I believe many young villagers who are currently migrant workers will return after seeing the opportunities available," Wu said.

So, in addition to supporting poverty alleviation, new endeavors such as baby pumpkins are playing an important role in revitalizing rural China, which is the next step for the world's most-populous country to wipe out absolute poverty by the end of the year.

At the March 6 symposium, Xi said the current poverty alleviation measures will stay in place as the focus shifts to the revitalization of rural areas.

He said the country will also accelerate implementation of a mechanism to prevent people from slipping back into poverty.

Getting out of poverty is not the end, but the starting point of a new life, he added.

After people discovered ways of making life better, village infrastructure, such as roads and garbage disposal systems, were also significantly improved as part of the poverty alleviation project. Even the renovation of bathrooms in people's homes has become a key project.

"Now, the villagers can have quality lives in rural areas just like in the cities, but without the pollution," Zeng Jianming, Party chief of Zengfeng village, said.

Zeng was speaking in the local ancestors' hall, where a couple of old photos of the village were hanging on the wall. The dirty adobe houses captured in the photos have been replaced by white-painted brick ones and the dirt road has been widened and sealed with tarmac.

"Those photos were only taken in 2013, but they seem a century old, considering how the village looks now," Zeng said.

"When people talked about rural China in the past, they often pictured poverty and a dirty environment. Well, those things are history now."

Like many of his peers, Li Fashun's navel orange business has been seriously affected by the novel coronavirus outbreak.

"As the logistics system across the country was halted temporarily, orange sales almost stopped. It was very worrying," he said.

After the logistics chains gradually resumed work, the villagers had no choice but to sell the oranges at below cost price before they rotted in the warehouses. Fortunately, the outbreak has had little impact on most farming activities, which have continued as normal, he added.

At the March 6 symposium, Xi urged officials nationwide to overcome the difficulties posed by the coronavirus outbreak and strive to meet poverty elimination goals by using poverty reduction funds and loans to help migrant workers return to their jobs and also to help farmers sell their produce.

Li Fashun now sees himself as a rural entrepreneur, and is sure he can handle the challenges posed by the outbreak.

"The government has given me a push on the way out of poverty. Now, it's down to me to make my life better, despite the difficulties that lie ahead," he said.