Exemplary rural leader to attend Congress

TAIYUAN－Over the past 44 years, Liu Guizhen has worked as a doctor, teacher, entrepreneur and village leader. She has taken on all these roles in a mountain village in North China. This year, she is taking on another role in Beijing.

Liu, nearly 60, has been a village doctor since 1978. She also worked as a village teacher from 1988 to 2017. She has served as village Party chief since 1996, and even founded a local cooperative in 2018.

After a long battle against pecuniary hardship, Duanjiawan village in North China's Shanxi province, bid farewell to poverty in 2017, thanks to Liu's efforts. Locals in the village hail her as the "mountain's daughter" for her decadeslong dedication to this cause.

This year, Liu was elected as a delegate to the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China.

"I feel very lucky. I'm just an ordinary person from a valley in the mountains doing some simple things," Liu says.

Liu's hometown, Duanjiawan village, nestled deep in the mountains, was not an ideal place to start a career.

In 1978, the village didn't have a doctor. Liu, setting her mind on taking the college entrance examination, was persuaded by her father, then village Party chief, to take a course organized by the local government to train villagers to become doctors.

"You're the only one who has been to high school in the village, who else can I turn to, if not you?" Liu recalls her father's words.

Liu then embarked on her career as a village doctor. In the beginning, she bought lots of books and consulted with professionals, gradually mastering the relevant skills.

She never charges villagers for her visits. With many pains relieved and illnesses cured, Liu has gained the trust of local villagers. From 2006, she even started to receive patients from a neighboring village, as their doctor was about to retire.

Liu has also imparted much of her knowledge in the classroom. In 1988, when its only teacher had left, the Duanjiawan primary school suspended classes for two months. Liu stepped up again, becoming a substitute teacher.

In 1996, Liu was elected the Party chief of the village. Troubled by the lack of natural resources, local villagers grew corn, millet, and potatoes to get by.

Through the conducting of several surveys, Liu found that it might be a good idea to grow pine trees, which could be financially rewarding. However, changing villagers' conventional ideas was never going to be easy, as many of them were wary of the risks and afraid of losing money.

Liu and her husband decided to set an example and, taking the risk, were the first to plant pine tree seedlings in their 200-square-meter plot. After two years, the saplings were sold for 75,000 yuan ($11,150).

Seeing abundant profits from growing pine trees, villagers soon followed in Liu's footsteps and planted a variety of seedlings including pine, poplar and Chinese spruce.

Whenever villagers met problems in cultivating the seedlings, Liu always gave advice. She even lent money to poverty-stricken families to help them get started.

In 2017, the village planted tree seedlings on approximately 6.7 hectares of land. By the end of 2020, net income per capita in the village surpassed 10,000 yuan.

As she is about to fulfill her duty as a CPC National Congress delegate later this year, she wants to use it as an opportunity to convey the voice and thoughts of the people of the villages, devoting herself to improving the teaching environment of schools in rural areas and the living conditions of local residents.

"I have never regretted staying in the village, and I will continue to serve the residents wholeheartedly for the rest of my life," says Liu.

Xinhua