How have the lives of rural residents changed in China?

Source:CCTV.com 03-03-21 10:42 Updated BJT
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By Zhou Fujing

Since 2012, China has lifted about 100 million rural people out of poverty. The fundamental purpose is to ensure residents can attain a better life. Accordingly, residents who used to be poverty-stricken are living a better life. Now, they have access to safe drinking water, have moved into new homes, got employed and earned higher incomes. Photos show the contrasts.

Access to safe drinking water

In 2018, China still had 1.04 million people who had difficulty accessing safe drinking water, a third of whom were in Xinjiang alone. From that time on, China's Ministry of Water Resources made ensuring safe drinking water for the poor as its top priority.

Nasier Maitiniyazi used to get water from a river, carry the bucket on his back, and go home; Drinking water is access to households in Uchkebron village.

Nasier Maitiniyazi used to get water from a river, carry the bucket on his back, and go home; Drinking water is access to households in Uchkebron village.

Nasier Maitiniyazi, 71, lives in Uchkebron village, Yutian County, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. He spent 60 years going back and forth between a muddy river to his home to get enough water for both drinking and other daily usage. He worried whether the family would have enough clean water to get through the next day. To solve the problem, a team was dispatched to the village to find clean water resources. Villagers volunteered to join the project. In July 2019, a clean spring water flowed into every household in the village.

From 2016 to 2020, a total of 2.903 billion yuan was invested into the projects to improve the safe drinking water in rural areas for over 270 million rural residents.

Reservoir dwellers are living a better life

Reservoir dwellers in villages lying by the Qingfengling reservoir in Anzhuang Township, Shandong Province used to scrape a living on barren farmland. They were given a jumpstart in 2014 when a project aimed at improving housing and employment conditions for impoverished residents started.

Yu Shu’ai poses near the spillway of the Qingfengling reservoir in 1998; Yu poses at the same location on May 13, 2020; Yu has got a job, picking tea leaves at a tea plantation by the Qingfengling reservoir.

Yu Shu'ai poses near the spillway of the Qingfengling reservoir in 1998; Yu poses at the same location on May 13, 2020; Yu has got a job, picking tea leaves at a tea plantation by the Qingfengling reservoir.

Yu’s old bungalow residence before resettlement; Yu’s new home in Dingguo Bihu.

Yu's old bungalow residence before resettlement; Yu's new home in Dingguo Bihu.

Mountain villagers live a better life

Life for residents in mountain villages in Xiushui County, Jiangxi Province has gotten much better. From 2016 to 2020, Xiushui County has built 141 similar resettlement communities for more than 10,000 impoverished rural residents.

Hu Shanghai from Xiushui County poses with his father and son in front of their old residence in November 2017; Hu and his family sit in their new home at a resettlement community.

Hu Shanghai from Xiushui County poses with his father and son in front of their old residence in November 2017; Hu and his family sit in their new home at a resettlement community. Hu is working as a forest ranger. He also invests in organic rice and silkworm businesses, which have helped lift his family out of poverty in 2018.

Leng Qingliu (left) and Hu Aihua pose in front of their old adobe house in 2017; Leng Qingliu and other villagers are moving out of their old home in the mountains in November 2017; The couple poses in front of their new home at a poverty-relief resettlement community in May 2020.

Leng Qingliu (left) and Hu Aihua pose in front of their old adobe house in 2017; Leng Qingliu and other villagers are moving out of their old home in the mountains in November 2017; The couple poses in front of their new home at a poverty-relief resettlement community in May 2020.

Villager Lin Yinghua’s old house and new house; He and a neighbor air-dry golden-and-silver honeysuckle flowers for a village herb collective.

Villager Lin Yinghua's old house and new house; He and a neighbor air-dry golden-and-silver honeysuckle flowers for a village herb collective.

Life for Huaxi villagers is getting better

Before 2018, more than 60 percent of labor force in Huaxi Village, Jiangsu Province went out to other cities to earn a living, which left nearly 60 percent of the farmland uncultivated. By 2020, about 17 hectares of peaches, 21 hectares of papaya and 45 hectares of sealworts have been planted on farmland contracted with villagers. In 2019 alone, 26 people returned to Huaxi and have started their own businesses.

Villagers’ residences in Huaxi Village of Zhongyi Township in 2017; The same residences after refurbishment in May 2020.

Villagers' residences in Huaxi Village of Zhongyi Township in 2017; The same residences after refurbishment in May 2020.

Chen Peng, a villager from an impoverished household, displays his share certificate in a village collective venture and his dividends for the year 2019 amounting to 480 yuan in Huaxi Village of Zhongyi Townshi; Chen tends a contracted sealwort field in Huaxi Village of Zhongyi Township.

Chen Peng, a villager from an impoverished household, displays his share certificate in a village collective venture and his dividends for the year 2019 amounting to 480 yuan in Huaxi Village of Zhongyi Townshi; Chen tends a contracted sealwort field in Huaxi Village of Zhongyi Township.

Zhongyi Township Primary School in 2013; The same school after refurbishment on April 8, 2020.

Zhongyi Township Primary School in 2013; The same school after refurbishment on April 8, 2020.

Life for residents in rural regions has changed and has kept improving.

(The views don't necessarily represent those of the CCTV.com.)

Editor: Zhang Jianfeng
03-03-21 10:42 BJT
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