ZHENGZHOU, March 17 (Xinhua) -- Li Xiangting knew there must be something wrong with their party secretary, Wu Shulan, since he had not heard from her in two months.

Wu, 60, brought hope to 2,000 locals who were trapped in a cycle of deep poverty in the mountainous Xiwanglou village in central China's Henan Province since she took charge of local poverty-relief work in 2017.

To Li, 70, the disappearance of Wu was odd, as the illiterate old man knew how often she came.

Over the past two years, Li marked all of Wu's visits with a line on his door. In 2017 he drew 25 lines; last year it was 42.

Asking around, he learned that Wu was recovering from heart surgery, but was relieved to see her in stable condition in hospital.

Wu has made her name by helping people escape poverty.

In 2010, while working at the provincial poverty relief office, she offered to take the job as party secretary in her home village, poverty-hit Dawuzhuang in Henan.

Back then, she was the only female and the oldest of a first batch of 19 officials in the province responding to the country's call for higher-level officials to assist in poverty-relief in rural areas.

She was surprised to find her village had not changed in 32 years.

"There is no road, the primary school is still shabby," Wu wrote in her diary.

Dawuzhuang is in a typical plain area in Henan. For centuries, local residents have fed themselves by growing grain, such as corn and wheat.

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