Persistence pays off with thorny fruit

Walking around Daba village in Anshun city, Guizhou province, one might be amazed at the uniform villas, wide roads and parklike environment.

However, 10 years ago nobody in the village could have imagined such living conditions, nor that they could raise their average annual income to more than 12,000 yuan ($1,740).

Villagers attributed the change to Chen Daxing, 50, who vowed to change the impoverished village when he became village Party chief in 1996.