Sitting in Fuyuan County, east Yunnan’s Qujing City, the Juhe village is surrounded by green hills, with a stream running through. Among its well-spaced houses, the newly built two-story villas are striking.

In tackling poverty in rural areas, Yunnan has renovated the dilapidated houses, while ensuring the villagers’ basic needs in food, clothing, education and medical care.

"After renovation, the structures are stabilized, with all minor problems resolved," said Wang Kangrong, Party chief of the Juhe Villagers’ Committee. Of the 186 dilapidated houses in the village, 102 houses were rebuilt, 15 households were resettled, and 69 houses were improved to avoid potential danger.

Juhe is a miniature in Yunnan’s effort to rid of the dilapidated houses in rural areas. From 2017 to 2019, the province has invested 25.673 billion yuan in the cause, securing safe housing for 5 million poor people.

Also, 4 event venues have also been built up in Juhe Village, together with a culture center, a basketball court, as well as activity rooms for seniors and Party members.

Today, Juhei Village is accessed by a hardened road, with its branches linking up all households. At the 4,400-square-meter Juhei Square, the elderly are sitting in the garden to enjoy sunshine. Teenagers are playing basketball in the court.

In 2019, Juhei was selected as a beautiful village in Qujing City. "The living environment has improved, and next we’ll work hard to be a well-off community." said Wang.

As an impoverished settlement, Juhei is home to 2,963 villagers, of which 612 used to be the extremely poor. As of now, 6 persons in 2 households still live below the national poverty line.

75-year-old Hou Zhongzuo and his wife are farming at home, but the youngest son earns 50,000 plus yuan annually in a factory in Guangdong province. On the whole, the family has got rid of poverty.

In recent years, local departments have offered villagers skills training and job information, sending around 800 migrant workers to coastal areas. The annual income of migrant workers has collectively exceeded 18 million yuan in the village.

"The village is beautiful, the income is increasing, and our life is bettering off." Hou said with confidence.

Apart from migrant labor services, Juhe Village also develops planting and breeding projects, so that villagers can be employed locally.

Since 2018, the Chinese yam has been planted on 4 hectares of land that belongs to 136 poor households. And 36 families have joined hands in setting up a pig breeding cooperative, raising a total of 1950 pigs that will reach maturity by the end of April.

In addition, bees, goats and cattle are bred by locals, while pepper and bletilla ochracea are planted in bulk by 12 households in the village.

"In the long run, we’ll embrace rural tourism, letting our beautiful village known to more people outside and increasing the income of more villagers." Wang Kangrong said. 

Source: Xinhua Net; trans-editing by Wang Shixue