A visit with destiny changes fortunes

Editor's note: Before the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, China Daily journalists traveled to three places President Xi Jinping has visited to discover how local people's lives have improved over the past decade.

Hundreds of tourists have come to Li Fashun's two-story house since President Xi Jinping visited his home on the outskirts of Tengchong, Yunnan province, during an inspection tour before Lunar New Year in 2020.

Xi, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, visited residents of Simola, a village in Qingshui township, to assess local poverty alleviation and extend New Year's greetings.

Li's farmyard has a display area showing how locals make rice cakes, including the ingredients and utensils.

"Xi came to my bedroom, touched my mattress and asked me if it was cold to sleep at night during that season," Li recalls.

"Then, he came to my kitchen, turned on the tap and tried the water. He also lifted the lid of our pot to look at our family's food, and he helped us make rice cakes in our farmyard."

Xi's visit to Simola generated tourism that has brought prosperity to the village inhabited by members of the Wa ethnic group.

In the Wa language, Simola means a happy place. But Li recalls that happiness was in short supply after a 2010 car accident left him unable to work.

"We relied on my wife financially in those years."

His wife, Yang Caiqin, sold produce and worked as a waitress in the city.

"I hoped that, through my efforts, my husband would recover and my children would continue school," she said.

After Li had started to get better, he bought an electric car to sell fruit and collect recycling in the village.

"We did everything we could," he recalled.

He also received animal husbandry training organized by the township's Party committee and government.

His family's fortunes had transformed by the end of 2017, by which time he had earned recognition in the village as a successful farmer. He could confidently say his family had overcome poverty by the time of Xi's visit.

"The general secretary asked me what my plans were," recalled Li's daughter, Li Lianhuan.

"I told him I wanted to continue my graduate studies, and he said I was a young person with great ideas."

She said Xi's care for young people filled her with a sense of responsibility.

Her graduate studies have earned her a reputation as a role model for Simola's young women and their families. In turn, she brought friends and teachers from her university to her hometown during the summer holiday this year.

"For me, getting into graduate school was like a promise to President Xi," she said.

"And now I've honored that promise."