THEN VS NOW: Meet the witnesses to a rural metamorphosis in SW China

Editor's note: Anti-poverty efforts have turned Abuluoha village in Southwest China from an isolated leprosarium into a promising rural community. In this set of images, photographer Jiang Hongjing captures the changes happening to and around local individuals and families over a 15-year time span. Meet them to visualize this great rural metamorphosis.

Abuluoha, a village encompassed by mountains and cliffs, is located in a river valley about 60 kilometers from Butuo county in Southwest China's Sichuan province.

As its name in the native Yi language denotes, the village was once "a place off the beaten path", serving as an isolated treatment center for local leprosy patients in the 1960s. Years after the disease was eliminated in the area, Abuluoha became an administrative village in 2007.

With a population of merely 253 people, most of whom are of the Yi ethnic group, Abuluoha had long suffered from poverty and poor transport infrastructure due to the rugged mountainous terrain.

The only dirt road stretching along the cliff were in terrible condition, and the roughness and steepness of the way acted as a deterrent. From the village to the nearest Wuyi township, they had to climb a steep cliff with a height of nearly 2,000 meters and more than 70 degrees along a path less than 1 meter wide.

Any negligence and carelessness would result in the potential risk of sliding down the cliff. It took four hours for an adult to go out, therefore many villagers have never walked out of the mountain in 58 years since the village was founded.

When a villager went out to sell sheep, he had to tie the sheep to his waist, and use his hands and feet to slip across the river with the rope. This was a true portrayal of villagers' life a few years ago.

Abuloha village was listed as an extremely poor village in 2013.

The change began with the construction of a road leading to the village. Village Party Branch Secretary Jilie Ziri still remembers that two years ago, when the road was about to be built, he led the village's officials to mobilize from house to house to encourage poor households to work in the road construction team.

"Is it possible to build a way out on a cliff? It's a waste of effort!" "It's better to grow potatoes and keep the harvest." Many villagers had reservations about the new road.

The provincial government thus sent an expert group to provide on-site guidance, and the State also coordinated the helicopter transport for the construction to convince the villagers of the long-term benefits. From a few to a dozen, almost all poor households in the village joined the team.

The 3.8-kilometer road to the village was cut through three cliffs, and a steel bridge was built over the canyon. The construction team, expert team and the whole village worked together, and it was finally completed more than a year later.

On June 29, 2020, villagers moved out of thatch houses into concrete ones at a poverty-relief relocation site. The next day, the operation of a 3.8-kilometer road along cliffs and ravines put an end to the village's history without paved roads.

Driven by nationwide anti-poverty efforts, great changes have taken place in Abuluoha within years. Kids started to receive primary education when the village's very first school was established in 2005. The villagers gained access to safe drinking water and electricity supply in 2007 and 2010, respectively. By 2019, the village had been provided with full 4G network coverage.

The new road opened the door of Abuloha to the outside world, and also gives the villagers the courage to get rid of poverty.

Through the development of special culturing farms, Abuloha village has successfully alleviated poverty and the villagers have led a comfortable life.

On Nov 17, 2020, the Sichuan provincial government announced that seven counties in Liangshan prefecture, including Butuo county, had officially withdrawn from the poverty-stricken county list. All poverty-stricken counties in Sichuan province achieved poverty alleviation.