Fujian villages bear witness to changes

Gao Quanguo, now in his 70s, still rides his motorcycle every day, as he has for decades, through the streets of Junying, a village tucked deep into the high hills of the coastal city of Xiamen in southeastern China's Fujian province.

The more than 10 motorcycles he has worn out over the years are a testament to how this once-impoverished mountain village clawed its way out of poverty.

An aerial view of Junying village in Xiamen, Fujian province, on Jan 26, 2024. (Lin Shanchuan/Xinhua) 

"In those days, every trip was difficult," Gao recalled. "The whole village had no proper roads — only dirt paths full of potholes."

In the 1980s, buoyed by China's reform and opening-up policy, as well as strong central government support for special economic zones, Xiamen emerged as one of the country's early engines of rapid economic growth.

Yet Junying, a village located just dozens of kilometers away in the mountains, remained deeply impoverished. Home to more than 600 residents, the village's annual per capita income barely exceeded 200 yuan ($28) at the time, with livelihoods relying mainly on tea cultivation.

The stark contrast left a deep impression on Xi Jinping when he made his first fact-finding trip to the village in 1986 in his capacity as vice-mayor of Xiamen, after traveling up hundreds of winding mountain turns to reach the village.

Upon meeting Gao, then head of the village committee, Xi raised his first question, "How many households here are the poorest?"

"I told him there were two or three," Gao recalled. "He then went door to door to visit them. After that, he came to my house."

At the time, Gao, also an agricultural technician, was considered one of the "better-off" villagers compared with others. Yet his home was sparsely furnished — just one bed, a round table and two stools.

After a brief conversation at the doorway, Xi stepped inside. With Xi's tall stature and the low height of his doorway, Gao worried he might hit his head. "I quickly reminded him to bend down, otherwise he might bump his head," Gao said. Heeding the warning, Xi bent slightly and walked into the house.

Xi asked more detailed questions about villagers' production and living conditions, including the village's development plans after the implementation of the "household contract responsibility system", a reform that allocated collective land to individual households.

The conversation lasted for more than an hour.

"After learning how poor and backward our village was, he encouraged us to plant more tea and fruit, develop tertiary industries and lift ourselves out of poverty as soon as possible," Gao said.

Gao Quanguo rides a motorcycle in Junying village on Jan 13. (PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

More than a decade later, Xi visited Junying village again in 1997 and learned that its tea cultivation area had expanded from about 33.3 hectares to more than 186.7 hectares — a fivefold increase.

Xi, then deputy secretary of the Fujian Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China, stressed that development must go hand in hand with environmental protection, an early articulation of the idea that "lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets".

"At that time, forestry protection was not taken seriously in many rural areas," Gao recalled. "Only a few forest farms were well protected, while most villages were surrounded by barren hills."

"Because we planted tea, farmers used to cut down trees for firewood to stir-fry fresh tea leaves," he said. "But Xi told us that while planting more tea and fruit, we must not forget forest conservation and greening."

Today, Junying village reflects the balance between development and ecological protection.

Following the launch of China's rural vitalization strategy, tea production was integrated with culture and tourism in the village in 2019.

"Visitors can experience tea picking in the mountains. Homestays and agritainment businesses have been developed. Tourists are coming, and our income sources have become diversified," Gao said, adding that the village's annual per capita income has now risen to more than 40,000 yuan.

Last year, one of Gao's sons built two four-story apartment buildings to operate homestays, further expanding the family's tourism-related business.

Meanwhile, Junying village is now home to more than 270 hectares of ecological forest, covering once-barren hills in green.

"Transportation is well connected now, and the ecological environment has improved significantly," Gao said. "Farmers are living much happier lives."

Hope after hardships

Several hundred kilometers to the north, in the mountainous areas of eastern Fujian, survival once overshadowed any discussion of development.

In July 1989, a once-in-a-century flood struck Xiadang township in Shouning county. Xiapingfeng village was hit the hardest, with more than 30 houses destroyed. Among the victims was Yang Shangbiao, who lost four family members, including two brothers.

"Our family was in a desperate situation," Yang recalled.

Yang remembers a significant visit that came at a time of despair. Xi, then Party chief of Fujian's Ningde prefecture, arrived to comfort families affected by the disaster, offering not only material assistance but also encouragement to rebuild.

Xi insisted on entering the village even after the flood destroyed the entire roadbed, leaving barely any visible road foundation.

Together with local officials, Xi took careful steps along the muddy riverbank and walked for 3 kilometers in the rain to reach the village.

Flooding damages houses in Xiapingfeng village in 1989. (PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

Yang recalled that Xi told his father that the two sons he raised were brave as they sacrificed their lives to protect villagers' lives and property.

"It felt like timely help in the middle of a harsh winter," Yang said. "It helped us stand back up."

That visit came just seven days after Xi had first traveled to the area to see firsthand the hardships faced by local residents.

A day after his first visit, Xi convened local officials in Shouning and made an immediate decision to tackle Xiadang's pressing needs, particularly road construction and power supply.

In 1996, Xi returned for the third time as deputy secretary of the Fujian Provincial Committee of the CPC.

It was in places like this — remote and deeply impoverished — that Xi conducted extensive field research during his years working in Ningde, traveling across the region's nine counties. His reflections were later documented in the book Up and Out of Poverty.

Xi wrote that for economically underdeveloped regions, development is constrained by historical conditions, natural environments and geographical factors, and there are no shortcuts. Profound change, he noted, cannot happen overnight, but only through gradual progress — like water dripping through stone.

Yang Shangbiao presents guests with dishes in Xiapingfeng village on Jan 15. (PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

Today, Xiadang is connected by multiple access roads. Power grids, internet coverage and water systems now reach even remote villages.

"Industries in our village have flourished," Yang said. "Some grow mushrooms. Some operate agritainment businesses. Others run tea processing factories."

Some residents have also opened supermarkets or small factories outside the township, further expanding income channels.

"In the past, we barely knew anything about cement or bricks," Yang added. "Now the entire village has modern multistory houses."

In a letter responding to villagers in 2019, Xi said he still vividly remembered his three visits to Xiadang.

After three decades of unremitting effort, Xiadang has transformed into a place easily accessible by road with a completely new appearance, Xi wrote, urging villagers to strive to embark on a path of rural vitalization that reflects the characteristics of eastern Fujian.

From sea to shore

For Jiang Chengcai's Xiaqi village in Fu'an city, the struggle was not against floods or remote mountains, but the sea itself.

Born into a family of the Tanka people, or boat dwellers, Jiang spent the first three decades of his life offshore. Seven family members shared a cramped wooden boat, constantly exposed to storms and uncertainty.

"Sometimes we barely had enough food to get by," he said. "My mother once tied the four of us siblings together during a typhoon, saying we would live together or die together."

From 1997 to 1999, relocation efforts promoted by Xi, then deputy secretary of the Fujian Provincial Committee of the CPC, brought Jiang and more than 500 other boat-dwelling households ashore.

Jiang, who was 32 at the time and a father of three, had to start from scratch on land.

In November 2000, Xi visited Jiang's home during a trip to Xiaqi village to learn about the situation of local households after their relocation.

"Not long after we moved into our new home on land, Xi came to visit us," Jiang said.

At Jiang's home, Xi asked about the family's size, their work and income, and how well they were adapting to life on land.

"I told him that 'life is good and comfortable now'," Jiang recalled.

"Now that you have come ashore, you must work hard and make something of yourself," Xi told him.

Jiang did exactly that.

Together with 16 villagers, he contracted more than 5 hectares of clam ponds, later expanding into aquaculture and construction. Over time, he built a stable livelihood and helped create jobs for others.

Sitting in the bright living room of his more than 100-square-meter apartment, Jiang recalled how he once stood at the bow of a boat, looking at the electric lights on land.

"What kind of light did we have on the boat? Kerosene lamps," he said. "When the wind blew across the sea, the flame would flicker and go out. Everything would sink into darkness."

Today, Jiang has passed his business to his son. His days are now spent with his grandchildren — a life he once could not imagine while drifting at sea.

A view of the residential buildings in Xiaqi village, Fu'an, Fujian, on Jan 16, where former boat dwellers now reside. (PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

Common prosperity goals

While their paths differed — from mountain villages to flood-hit townships and coastal fishing communities — the stories of Gao, Yang and Jiang reflect a shared logic behind China's poverty alleviation drive.

"That is, change did not happen overnight. It followed a clear direction: stabilize people's lives first, build infrastructure, develop industries suited to local conditions, and protect the environment that sustains long-term growth," said Cai Yanqi, an assistant research fellow at the Fujian Academy of Social Sciences.

According to Cai, principles articulated decades ago in Up and Out of Povertygradually took shape not in slogans, but in roads built across mountains, forests restored on once-barren hills, and development opportunities passed on to the next generation.

In 2015, Xi, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, sounded the bugle call to a nationwide battle against poverty at the National Conference on Development-driven Poverty Alleviation. "We should be determined, dedicate ourselves, and work hard towards the goal," he said.

Since the campaign began, Xi had visited each one of the 14 contiguous poor areas across the country and over 20 poverty-stricken villages, and sat in the homes of impoverished households to listen to their difficulties, suggestions, and needs, building up their confidence and determination, and their belief that they can work their way out of poverty.

On Feb 25, 2021, Xi declared at a national conference that China had secured a comprehensive victory in the fight against poverty, and completed the arduous task of eradicating extreme poverty, with all 98.99 million rural residents living below the poverty line lifted out of poverty.

"We must take concrete steps to consolidate and expand upon the outcomes of the fight against poverty as part of our effort to promote rural vitalization, so that the foundations of poverty eradication are more solid and the effects are more sustainable," he said.

Wang Sangui, dean of the China Anti-Poverty Research Institute at Renmin University of China, said the country's poverty alleviation experience shows that development must be built on both physical foundations and human motivation.

And this forward-looking thinking had been reflected in many of the poverty alleviation ideas and measures Xi proposed while working in Fujian, he said.

"On the one hand, priority was given to improving production and living conditions in poor areas," Wang said. "Better infrastructure, such as roads and electricity, made trade more convenient and significantly reduced development costs, laying the foundation for long-term growth."

Equally important, Wang noted, was strengthening people's confidence and motivation. "As Xi emphasized in Up and Out of Poverty, poverty alleviation must begin with building aspiration and self-belief," he said.

As China has transitioned from poverty alleviation to rural vitalization and now moves toward the long-term goal of common prosperity, Wang said the emphasis on endogenous development capacity has become even more critical.

"The further China advances toward common prosperity, the more important it becomes to strengthen people's willingness and ability to pursue development on their own. This is a fundamental principle," he said.

Wang said China's poverty alleviation experience has also provided valuable lessons for many developing countries.

"Poverty is difficult to tackle, but China's experience shows that with strong determination, sustained effort and appropriate strategies, it can be overcome," he said. "At the same time, poverty reduction is not a short-term task. It requires long-term commitment and continuous supportive policies."

Wang added that even after China declared complete victory in eradicating extreme poverty in 2021, efforts have continued — all aimed at consolidating achievements and preventing relapse.

Wang said that China's regional diversity, ranging from coastal areas to mountainous regions, has generated multiple poverty alleviation models.

"The fact that such diverse regions have all managed to lift themselves out of poverty offers different development pathways and ideas that can be adapted by countries with varying national conditions," he said.