Cliff village builds a road to prosperity

Thanks to the determination and ambition to build a road on a cliff, a poverty-stricken village located in remote mountainous area in Central China's Hubei province has created a new path to prosperity.

Mountains, a river and a narrow valley cut off Dianziping village in Jianshi county, which is about 200 kilometers away from Hubei's second-largest city of Yichang, and its fertile farmland of potato, tobacco and corn.

"There was no road to transport the products," said Wang Guangguo, Party secretary of the village. "Most of the goods either went waste or were fed to pigs."

In 2003, Wang succeeded in collecting over 70,000 yuan ($10,660) from villagers and an allocation of 120,000 yuan from the local government and swore an oath to build a road and a bridge connecting his village to the outside world.

"If you want prosperity, first build a road," Wang said. "We can't pass on this poverty, created by the absence of a road, to our next generation."

The elderly, teenagers and women banded together to start construction of the road on the cliff in 2005 as most men of working age had long ago left to find work in the cities.

Nine years on, the 11.7-kilometer road was finished in 2014, and things started to change.

The convenient transportation and beautiful scenery increased the popularity of the village and spurred a boom in other businesses including rural homestays and local specialty sales.

Many villagers have turned their homes into hotels where they provide meals and lodging and present cultural activities. And they also sell local products such as rice wine and folk costumes.

The villagers made an annual income of 8,800 yuan per person compared to only 2,200 yuan in 2012. And the whole village was lifted out of poverty in 2017, Wang said.