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Despondency disappears in Baichehe village

By Joseph S. Margai (People's Daily Online)    16:47, August 01, 2018

The transformation of the indecent houses to modern structures makes the kid happy

Baichehe village has been completely transformed into a modern town by the Liupanshui Municipal Government.

Residents of Baichehe, a village in Guizhou Province in China, have become middle income earners, crediting their change of story to the Communist Party of China (CPC) through the support of the Liupanshui Municipal Government.

The residents, who were once filled with pessimism, could now realize the era of a positive dawn on their lives.

The mountainous community, which was a den for starvation, despondency and low income earners, has now become a standard town with Liupanshui government officials providing basic social amenities like water and electricity, schools, clinics, good roads and standard housing for the residents.

A media tour, which was funded by Liupanshui Municipal Government and organized by People’s Daily Online, was an eye-opener on how the Chinese government has been alleviating poverty in the country.

Residents of Baichehe could now benefit from a boost of jobs, created by the Liupanshui municipal officials through tourism, aquaculture, manufacturing and cultivation of vegetables and fruits, among others.

Hu Qiong, a resident in her late 20s, who is employed by the tourism sector, said her entire family used to reside on the mountains, about three kilometres away from Baichehe, but when the government saw the difficulties inhabitants faced, it decided to relocate them.

She said things have now positively changed as they have now been provided with standard housing equipped with modern facilities.

“Our previous village was transformed into a touristic site. Frankly, we are proud citizens of China. We are no longer worrying about what to eat or what job should we do to earn a living. We have jobs here, some people are into cultivation of crops with improved techniques, manufacturing of Baijiu wine (an alcohol that is only produced in China), etc,” she said.

Hu said she earns 2,200 yuan, approximately US$324 every month, boasting that in a village like Baichehe, where the cost of living is relatively low, that amount of money is enough to use and save.

Hu is not the only member of her family who is enjoying the steady flow of income. She said her parents, who were farmers but could not make much money from agriculture, changed trade and have now embarked on manufacturing of local products for tourists to buy.

The “proud Chinese citizen” hastened to add that they are also being provided with training on basic working skills and ethics on how to deal with tourists, which makes her a fulfilled young lady, earning money and gaining experience as well.

She noted that in the village of over 1,000 households, they have access to education, health care services, water and electricity supply, improved roads with means of transportation, etc.

She said her three-year old girl is currently attending a kindergarten with modern facilities, which has been built in the village.

Zhou Jiang, a woman who was previously assigned to work in the village, confirmed that lots of things have changed, adding the construction of modern structures and provision of basic social amenities have given a facelift to the once despondent village.

“What the Chinese government has been doing over the past few years to alleviate poverty in these counties is remarkable. Some of these villages and counties were once deplorable but when you have a government that is serious about transforming lives and changing the negative stories of its people, these are some of the outcomes,” she said.

She said that the government is doing everything possible to relocate people from poor settlements and also create jobs for them to live a comfortable life.

Madam Zhou revealed that in the tourism company, for example, the residents own shares because the land that was utilized to set up the company still belongs to them.

According to her, the initiative is to slow down rural-urban migration because if the people have everything in their towns, there is no need to seek opportunities in big cities.

Baichehe is situated very close to mountains, and many independent observers have raised eyebrows about the safety of the residents, but Wang Chao, a standing committee member in the Department of Publicity of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in Liupanshui city, allayed fears that the mountains were made of rocks not mud, hence there is no fear of mud/landslide.

“The Chinese government takes into consideration the safety of the people. Before it thought of the relocation, a team of engineers carefully surveyed the area and discovered that the mountains will not pose any threat to residents’ lives,” he explained, calming people’s fear.

(For the latest China news, Please follow People's Daily on Twitter and Facebook)(Web editor: Bianji, Hongyu)

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