I'd
read and heard so much about the miracle of poverty reduction in China
that I had to go see it myself firsthand. That opportunity arrived when I
went on an excursion to Dawan village in Anhui province, east China. I
knew very little about the place. All I knew was that it sat 1,500
meters above sea level, and that President Xi Jinping visited it in
2016.
The high-speed train trip
there was uneventful and the connecting train ran like clockwork. But
what I took for granted was actually a huge leap for the county,
Jinzhai. It used to be one of the poorest counties in China. Today a
high-speed railway connects Jinzhai to the rest of the country, and it
stepped out of poverty in April 2020.
The last leg of my journey was by road. I was expecting a dirt lane but the road was tarred and completely pothole-free.
The
first sighting of the village reminded me of the Cameron Highlands in
Malaysia. Both are at about the same elevation and have similar looking
shophouses, their main produce being tea. I already felt at home.
The
hotel was surprisingly modern with central heating, air-conditioning
and free WiFi. Electricity ran 24 hours a day and the water was piping
hot.
The first order of the day after
the local sumptuous hotpot lunch was to visit the local school. The
kids were simply amazing! To break the ice, I performed a simple magic
trick, making a red handkerchief disappear to squeals of laughter.
I
was amazed by the English vocabulary these kids possessed. I did a
short Q&A, rewarding every individual with a pen for each correct
answer.
Next stop, the bee farm. I
was stunned to learn that the owner was an engineering graduate who had
returned from the city to start this two-time award-winning farm. On top
of that, he teaches the elderly in the village how to rear bees in
their spare time. He added that this suits them well, as it yields high
income while requiring very little upkeep beyond the initial setup.
Plus, bees are really good for the environment.
A hop and a skip away from the beehives, he keeps goats and sheep, all providing a tidy and steady income.
We
drove a good 20 minutes from the bee farm, further up into the hills,
to reach a smokehouse constructed from mud and wood. Scores of poultry
hung from the ceiling, being cured by the smoke, awaiting shipment to
hungry buyers.
The residents of Dawan
market their products out to the rest of the country and to the world
via a stable and modern infrastructure, including Internet connection
24/7. In stark contrast to some Southeast Asian countries where Internet
penetration is not even 40 percent, China's is close to 100 percent.
This makes a huge difference for poverty reduction and national
development.
The government buys up
old derelict houses, and with those funds, people are able to build new
homes for themselves. In addition, the government also provides seed
money so that people can start new businesses. Enterprising
entrepreneurs can add to those funds soft loans procured from friends
and relatives to kick it off. The results have been stellar.
On
my last day at Dawan, I bumped into a lady who had not only moved back
here from Shanghai but was sending money to her father who was still
living there. This I believe is proof of the pudding that Dawan has
certainly left the shackles of poverty behind.
Recently, a batch of such wine vessels were unearthed at the Mopanshan archaeological site in Langxi, Anhui 最近安徽郎溪磨盘山遗址出土了一批这样的酒器
Dialogue with International Young Directors |Young directors from Sri Lanka and Brazil visit Anhui for the first time to shoot folk documentaries, they describe it as a 'Journey to Restore Creativity'