Natural resources help boost living standards

Natural resources

Located about 250 km southwest of Beijing, Fuping lies deep in the Taihang Mountains, which span Beijing, the provinces of Hebei and Shanxi and run down to the central province of Henan.

President Xi Jinping visited Fuping in December 2012, shortly after being elected general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.

He urged local officials to work hard to help impoverished villagers gain better lives as soon as possible.

In 2013, the central government introduced an ambitious plan to eradicate poverty nationwide by the end of this year.

In Luotuowan, a remote village in Fuping, locals have experienced tremendous changes since Xi's visit.

Their per capita disposable income rose from 950 yuan in 2012 to 13,620 yuan last year, while the poverty headcount ratio fell from 79.4 percent to zero.

The improvements were due to a number of poverty alleviation and development plans, including selecting capable officials to guide relief work and introducing suitable industries like tourism and the cultivation of grapes and fungi.

Gu Ruili, Party chief of Luotuowan, was elected to the post three years ago because of his business experience.

"Without development ideas, the village cannot walk out of poverty by itself," said Gu, who started in business in his 20s, running successful guest houses and ecotourism spots.

The 48-year-old said Luotuowan is suitable for the development of tourism because the weather is cool in summer, the air quality is better than in cities and it has beautiful mountain scenery.

In recent years, the dilapidated old houses in the village have been renovated into new residences, while retaining their traditional features, and roads and other infrastructure have been upgraded.

Last summer, the village received more than 200,000 visitors－mainly from Beijing, Tianjin, and cities in Hebei and neighboring Shanxi－who came to escape the city heat and their busy urban lives, Gu said.

The local tourism industry is run by a company that rents villagers' houses and transforms them into country inns.

The villagers, who mainly live in the new residential communities, receive the rental money and a share of the profits at the end of each year.