Xi Jinping in the fields

"I was a farmer... and knew what villagers wanted the most," President Xi Jinping recalled during a foreign trip in 2015.

In 1969, 15-year old Xi left Beijing and settled in a poor village deep in the mountains of the loess plateau in Northwest China, where he spent the next seven years working as a farmer. The experiences have grown into an enduring sense of concern for the welfare of farmers.

Over the past decade, as China's top leader, Xi visited more than 20 poor villages across the country, talking to farmers, walking in the fields and inspecting crops.

In February 2021, Xi announced that China had scored a "complete victory" in its fight against poverty. But that's not the end. He has shifted the strategy to the next target: rural vitalization.

(Produced by Yu Qiuyu, Wang Kan, Wang Rong, Zhang Shixuan, Xie Runjia and He Jieqiong)