Human side of rural change

She was born in a small rural village in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region. During her childhood the family was so poor that sometimes they could not even afford rice, and had to live on corn they grew themselves.

Her family home was made of bricks and mud, and had no modern amenities - no heating, no TV, no phone, no indoor toilet, and a power supply that failed frequently.

To maintain the modest household, her mother toiled from dawn to dusk at farm work in the family's fields near the house; her father worked for a small salary as a rural school teacher; and her grandmother, who lived with them, did her best to help care for the young girl.