For 51-year-old Sun Wenxin and other farmers living on Luliang Mountain, poverty had been a way of life.
Sun could barely support his family by growing oat and beans on his two hectares of land, and soil erosion only made matters worse.
"I had to walk about two miles to get to the wells, and there was no hospital deep in the mountain," Sun recalled.
Data from the central government suggests that about 10 million poverty-stricken people like Sun live amid extreme environmental conditions such as high altitudes, stony surroundings and deforestation.
When the county government asked him if he would like to move his family in 2009, he quickly agreed.
"The relocation program offered a 5,000-yuan subsidy per person to help us cover costs and start a new life," said Sun, who moved to his new home three years ago. (5,000 yuan is equal to 802 U.S. dollars.)
From valley to plain, loess caves to brick houses, the 1,400 former township residents have been living a completely different life in the new village. The villagers' per capita net income increased from less than 900 yuan before the relocation to 3,400 yuan last year, exceeding the national poverty line of 2,300 yuan for the first time.
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