Investing in our children

Poverty should not necessarily mean falling behind.

Ningshaan, a poverty-stricken county in Northwest China's Shaanxi province, has put the economically developed regions to shame with its spending on free education for its children.

Its revenue was only 30.75 million yuan ($4.8 million) last year, compared with the 1.8 billion yuan income of Jinhu county of East China's Jiangsu province.