'Memory museums' tell of poorer times

LANZHOU－In an obscure museum in Huachuan village, old household items and furniture collected from local farmers are testimonies to the tremendous changes wrought by the national anti-poverty drive.

Kerosene lamps and water containers made from bark were once common objects in the village in Gansu province.

Now they are displayed like ancient relics in the three-room "Rural Memory Museum".

One family's prized possessions included five pottery bowls that are on display in a neat row.

"In the past, only the better off of the impoverished families in the village could afford them," said Wang Ting, a township official stationed at the village and a guide at the three-room museum.

Pottery jars of various shapes and sizes are the most common items on display, representing an era when families needed to store water in preparation for dry spells.

Another photo showed villagers gathering around a newly installed outside water tap in 2014. "It was the first time tap water reached the village, and villagers wrapped the faucet with plastic bags to protect the precious water source from freezing in the winter," Wang said.