A meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) discussed the development-oriented Poverty Reduction Program for Rural China (2011-2020) earlier this year, and stressed "constantly improving the ability of self-development for poverty-stricken people."

By 2010, the campaign reduced the impoverished population in this area to 9,900, far from 2002's figure of 31,400, and the area's poverty incidence dropped from 11.5 percent in 2002 to 4 percent in 2010, according to the county's poverty alleviation office.

The school's courses include standard classroom learning, basic carpentry skills and on-the-job training, all designed to improve the student's practical ability.

In 2009, Esquire magazine (Chinese edition) listed the school as one of the "sixty new hopes for China."

Xiuning is among the beneficiaries of the continuing nationwide development-oriented poverty alleviation program China set in motion in the mid-1980s, which is different from the previous direct financial transfers because it focuses on encouraging self-development of poverty-stricken areas and people.

In Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture in southwest Sichuan Province, the program implemented new farming methods from local villagers' self-conducted farming experiments help boost local economy.

The success of the program allowed local farmer Ma Xiari to move from a mountainside-thatched cottage to a brick-built and furnished new house two years ago.

Liangshan has been afflicted with poverty for years because of adverse natural conditions and lack of education and technology resources.

However, local officials in the prefecture's Pushi Village, through self-conducted experimental farming, found that the prefecture's high altitude provides a favorable geographical location and agro-ecological conditions for off-season vegetable growing.