Hard work vitalizes village in Hebei

Shashiyu, a former backwater village in Hebei province, has been turned into an affluent, livable place thanks to efforts made by generations of the Communist Party of China members and their perseverance.

In the 1940s, villagers in Shashiyu had little food and few clothes, sustaining themselves on a diet of wild herbs and chaff. Their desire and passion for better lives, however, wasn't dampened by their situation, and they devoted themselves to the village's construction.

While visiting an exhibition in Beijing in 1957, Zhang Guishun, the then 43-year-old Party secretary of Shashiyu, encouraged his fellow villagers to free themselves of their dilemma with great determination and courage. He talked about how villagers in Lijiazhai, a backwater area in Shandong province, had pulled themselves out of poverty.

"We must show some spirit and persistence," said Zhang, who persuaded the villagers to work harder to improve their lives so that they would no longer need charity from the government.

"In the fairy tales, Yugong can move two mountains that once blocked his family's way out with his persistence and endurance, so why can't we try? Nobody was born to be poor!" Zhang said at the time.

The biggest obstacles for the villagers were barren lands of flagstones and scarce irrigation water. They decided to use a small patch of land－667 square meters－as a reclamation experiment in 1966.

The villagers, led by comrades of the CPC, dug wells by breaking through hard stones and reclaimed land by transporting soil from areas 2.5 kilometers away from the village.

As a result of their efforts, they reclaimed the land in just 10 days.

Villager Li Fengzhong recalled that it bothered people to see their shoes stained with soil from walking on the land, because every single grain of soil they had carried there took great effort.

"The first patch of land we reclaimed was rather small, but succeeding built up our hope and enthusiasm for a better life. What we had to do at the time was to work harder and harder!" said Li, 75.