国内英语资讯:Xinhua Insight: Xis village tours assure poverty reduction_时事

国内英语资讯:Xinhua Insight: Xis village tours assure poverty reduction

BEIJING, Dec. 28 (Xinhua) -- Residents in Luotuowan village have a busy winter this year. They are building new houses and new roads, a scene never seen in these parts before.

"In past winters, elders just squatted at their house gates to enjoy sunshine with hands buried in sleeves, and some laborers climbed up hills to collect firewood," said Gu Runjin, 68, a Party official in the mountain village in Hebei Province.

"The traditional restful winter has become a busy one," he said.

Deep in the Taihang Mountains, Fuping County, which administers Luotuowan village, has been under a national poverty reduction program since the mid-1990s. In 2016, the county's registered poverty-stricken population was around 110,000, or 48 percent of its total.

Great changes started taking place in this remote village after a visit by Xi Jinping in December 2012, shortly after he was elected general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee.

During his 2012 trip to the county, Xi told officials to work hard to help villagers in poverty live a better life as soon as possible.

NEW HOMES NEW LIVES

Tang Rongbin, 73, from Luotuowan, and Gu Chenghu, 65, from Gujiatai village, were both visited by Xi in 2012 and then had had their homes rebuilt and living standards improved.

"My current living conditions are almost the same as someone living in the city. I used to live in a clay house and was not accustomed to my new home when I moved in," Gu said. His new house has four bedrooms, a living room and a kitchen.