Poor villagers create prosperity through hard work

With wide streets, spacious villas, schools, supermarkets, a cinema, high-grade hotels and hot springs, Baoshan village in Pengzhou, Sichuan province, seems much like a bigger city or a tourist resort.

Forty years ago, poverty-stricken villagers lived in shabby sheds of bamboo and mud. They worried year-round about how to feed themselves.

The changes for the better, according to locals, were fueled by 82-year-old Jia Zhengfang, former Party chief of the village.