Shanxi lifts villagers out of poverty through poverty relief efforts

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Combination photo shows old houses in Zhaojiawa Village of Kelan County, Xinzhou, north China's Shanxi Province (top, aerial photo taken on June 22, 2017); and the Guanghuiyuan relocation community where some Zhaojiawa Village residents moved in (bottom, aerial photo taken on May 20, 2020). Zhaojiawa Village had 21 villagers who lived in an extreme poverty due to scarcity of resources and barren soil. Thanks to a poverty relief relocation program, the 21 villagers on Sept. 22, 2017 moved to the Guanghuiyuan relocation community where they are not only enjoying amenities but also living in a much better life ever since. The recent poverty relief efforts by Shanxi Province include: make road networks access to rural villages, relocate rural residents to better housing, afforest barren lands with green trees, and stimulate employment by developing tourism. Without these, the province's many plateau and mountain villages would have remained impoverished due to lack of decent roads and arable lands, plus the ensuing loss of labour force and industrial diversity. By February 2020, a total of 7,993 villages in all of the 58 impoverished counties in Shanxi have shaken off poverty, with the incidence of poverty dropping to less than 0.1 percent. (Xinhua/Cao Yang)