Village head treats residents as family

Li Yuanmin said there is no secret to being a village Party chief trusted by the 3,905 residents of Gaimai.

"All you need to do is to treat them as your family members and think from their perspective all the time," the 53-year-old said.

When she was just a year old, she moved from Shandong province to the village in Yining county, Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, with her parents. She grew up in Gaimai, where 90 percent of the villagers are farmers from such ethnic groups as Uygur and Hui, and she speaks the Uygur language fluently. The villagers gave her a Uygur name, Jemila, which means beauty.