Shaanxi lifts poor to higher rung on income ladder

The government of Zhen'an county in Shaanxi province has lifted families out of poverty by relocating them and helping wage earners find jobs, a local official said.

Over the years, locals were forced to live in densely populated or mountainous areas of the county, with inconvenient traffic and scarce educational and medical resources.

To improve the living environment of such people, the local government in 2011 began building a garden-like residential community in the county's Yungaisi town. A total of 1,300 households have moved into the community so far. Among them 515 poor families had been living in mountainous areas, according to Jiang Weijie, the town's Party chief.

Meanwhile, to meet their demand for jobs and better income, the local government set up some factories nearby in several sectors — components for electronic devices, agricultural products and garments.

Bu Mingqing, 53, is one of the workers. Under an arrangement with the local government, she and her family moved into an apartment of 105 square meters in the community in 2017. She got a job as a cleaner at a factory close by.

"When I first came to the community, I was worried about making a living, as I didn't have any working skills and the family was very poor," she recalled. "Thanks to the help of our town officials, I got my current job and can earn 1,100 yuan ($157) a month."

The salary may be not high, but for Bu, who once had to borrow money to support her family, it's a great leap from her previous life.