Shanxi invests in people to improve quality of life across the board

With the economic strength of Shanxi increasing in recent years, the local government is now in the position to devote more energy and resources to improving people's livelihoods. As a result, the residents are feeling an increasing sense of happiness, gain and security.

Cao Liuren and his wife live in Guanghuiyuan community, a settlement for immigrants relocated for poverty alleviation in the Shanxi county of Kelan. They used to live in a shabby old house in Zhaojiawa village. "Getting out of the mountains "was their biggest wish.

Zhaojiawa was a village in Lyuliang Mountains with poor production and living conditions. It featured a row of dilapidated adobe houses dotted along the slope of a loess mountain and infertile farmlands in the valley.

Before 2017, many of the houses and farmlands had been abandoned as residents moved away in search of better lives. Some of the villagers — 21 people in six households — who stayed behind were struggling with extreme poverty.

Cao was one of them. His bedroom, bereft of any furniture or ornaments except a brick bed with newspapers pasted onto the walls and the ceiling, mirrored the stark conditions of his family.

On Sept 22, 2017, the last 21 villagers in Zhaojiawa, including Cao, moved to the Guanghuiyuan community.

After recalling his tough life in Zhaojiawa, Cao said he is very satisfied with what he has now.

After the relocation, Cao found a job in a nearby factory, which provides his family with a steady income to make a better life together.

The new residents in Guanghuiyuan have all seen substantial improvements in their quality of life. They work in nearby factories and other entities, or do farming work in vegetable greenhouses near their homes.

Tianzhen county in the north of Shanxi, which was once among the 10 least-developed counties in the province, has adopted a similar approach to poverty alleviation.

To help residents escape poverty, the county government established the Wanjiale Relocation Community and Industrial Park in the county seat. It offers new settlements to impoverished residents and provides job opportunities by attracting industrial projects to the park.

To date, more than 10,000 residents have moved to new homes in the community and dozens of enterprises have settled in the industrial park, creating thousands of jobs.

The Guanghuiyuan and Wanjiale relocation projects are just two of the many successful cases in Shanxi's targeted poverty-alleviation campaign.

Local statistics show that a total of 3,365 villages, which used to be labeled as "deeply impoverished", have seen residents relocated to new sites with better living conditions and better job and business opportunities.

Shanxi announced in early 2021 that its entire impoverished population of 3.29 million had been lifted out of absolute poverty.

This phenomenal victory has made it possible for Shanxi to embark on a new course of rural vitalization. Since then, boosting revenues and improving the quality of life have become the new missions in Shanxi's rural affairs.

In recent years, Shanxi has built three sightseeing highways to link Shanxi's three landmark attractions; the Yellow River, the Great Wall and the Taihang Mountains. These projects have benefited more than 181,000 residents by engaging them in the tourism industry to increase revenues.

Over the past decade, the per capita annual income of Shanxi's rural residents increased to 15,308 yuan ($2,113) in 2021 from 7,064 yuan in 2012. And the per capita annual income of urban residents rose from 20,232 yuan to 37,433 yuan.

Employment promotion is another area that Shanxi has highlighted. As the governments at all levels have made efforts in job skill training programs and encouraging entrepreneurship, Shanxi has seen an additional 5.14 million people employed over the past decade.

In the area of education, Shanxi has seen its expenditure almost double from 2012-21. The investment has been used to strengthen the nine-year compulsory education system, improve preschool education and balance resources between urban and rural areas.

In healthcare, Shanxi has also highlighted the balanced development between cities and the countryside. Because of increased investment from governments and the wide application of digital technologies, medical institutions in rural Shanxi now have better infrastructure and can access better resources throughout the province and even the entire country.

The province is expanding the coverage of its medical care insurance system to help residents access free and universal services. Healthcare for seniors and children is the highlight of this expansion.

Statistics show that Shanxi's medical care insurance system, which is sponsored by the governments at various levels, now covers more than 32 million residents, or 95 percent of its population.

In addition to healthcare and education, Shanxi's efforts to improve people's livelihoods include a pension system for the elderly and an assistance system for the underprivileged, such as the unemployed and disabled, as well as initiatives to improve the environment.

Local statistics show that the province's basic pension system covered more than 26 million people by the end of 2021. During 2012-22, Shanxi invested a total of 53.87 billion yuan to offer assistance to underprivileged residents.

In the area of environmental protection, sustained efforts over the past decades have led to substantial improvements in air and water quality.

A quantitative assessment of Shanxi's environmental performance over the past five years shows that its air quality improved by 29.9 percent between 2017-21. The water quality of Shanxi's rivers and lakes reported a good and excellent rate of 72.3 percent in 2021, compared to 55.2 percent in 2017, according to the Shanxi Department of Ecology and Environment.

Readers select books at a bookstore in Taiyuan. LI ZHAOMIN/FOR CHINA DAILY

A woman in Xiangfen county makes buns with auspicious figures and patterns, showing her expectations for a better life. LI XIANJUN/FOR CHINA DAILY

Once barren hills, the Lyuliang Mountains in Shanxi are now covered by lush forests, demonstrating the province's sustained efforts in improving the environment. FENG SHUAI/FOR CHINA DAILY