Resettlements give rural kids advantages of modern urban life

For Xu Yanli and her family, moving to a nearby newly built apartment building with all the modern conveniences has been far removed from the mud-brick house she grew up in a remote village in Southwest China's Yunnan province.

Xu said that she'd never imagined that her children would one day be learning chess and reciting Tang Dynasty (618-907) poems in bright city classrooms, or that she herself would work in a stationery shop near her home.

Since moving to Fuxing Jiayuan, a large resettlement community in Xuanwei city, in 2020, Xu said her life has changed dramatically. The city, with a population of 1.15 million people, has several similar resettled rural communities and neighborhoods, enabling them to benefit from better infrastructure, education, connectivity and the opportunities that follow.

"Compared to the old days, this is much better," she said. "My husband drives a concrete truck outside the city, I work nearby, and the children walk to school on their own. Our income has grown. If we need something, we can just go out and buy it."

Xu is one of the many rural residents who were relocated as part of a poverty alleviation initiative, which aims to lift entire families out of deep poverty by moving them from geographically isolated areas to more developed urban environments. The program was an important measure to consolidate the achievements of the national antipoverty campaign and transition the country into long-term rural vitalization.

But while moving from the mountains to the city was a physical shift, the more profound challenge lay in the transformation of daily life, especially for children.

At Fuxing No 2 Elementary School in Xuanwei, built next to the Fuxing Jiayuan community, a third-grade class was midway through a Chinese chess lesson in late May. The digital board at the front of the room flashed classic opening moves as the teacher explained how to escape a tight endgame. The classroom bookshelves were lined with colorful books and small potted plants.

In another classroom, ancient poetry written in tidy strokes adorned the walls. In the corner, a small decorated box labeled "psychological mailbox" invited children to anonymously share worries they don't know how to express out loud.

Many of these students come from families that were relocated to the city. To help them adjust, the school maintains detailed household records and works closely with social workers to ensure students receive timely psychological support.

When the school first opened in December 2019, it had just 16 students and five preschoolers. Today, enrollment has soared to over 1,267 students in the elementary school and 306 in the kindergarten, including left-behind children whose parents work far away, orphans and students with disabilities, said Tang Ting, principal of the elementary school.

She added that the school doesn't give up on any child. It runs a "teaching at your door" program, where educators visit the homes of disabled students with personalized lesson plans.

Li Lin, vice-principal at the elementary school, said some children were unfamiliar at first with how many modern conveniences found in schools and apartment buildings worked.

Teachers conducted weekly home visits to help children learn basic urban life skills.

"We taught students everything from turning on kitchen appliances to folding laundry. We had to bring life skills into the classroom," Li said.

"Now they live like city kids. They know how to take care of themselves, how to study and how to be part of a community," she added.

Fuxing Jiayuan is the largest resettlement community in Xuanwei. The model community is part of the final phase of a five-year national campaign to consolidate poverty alleviation achievements, marking a transition from short-term relief to sustainable development.