NEW IDENTITIES

After serving as the head of the provincial women's federation for 10 years, Shen returned to the village in 1983.

"I was nobody but a farmer. My fellow villagers needed me," she recalled.

While China, under the reform and opening-up drive since 1978, was in transition from the planned economy to a market economy, Shen grew a new identity as an entrepreneur, enabling her to keep voters' trust.

She opened a collectively-owned ferroalloy plant with bank loan, the first enterprise in her village, in 1985. A walnut oil factory and a cannery were later built.

Villagers' efforts in farming and forestation led by Shen and other cadres have transformed Xigou into a tourist attraction with more than 1,300 hectares of trees.

Shen now volunteers to receive tourists, telling stories of the CPC revolution in the Taihang mountains as well as her own remarkable tale. She also keeps on farming, which she says keeps her healthy.

"The countryside develops slower than the cities, but progress never stops," said Shen, adding she is confident that her county will be free of poverty by 2020.

In 2008, she was selected as a carrier in the Beijing Olympics torch relay at the age of 79. "I got up at 5:30 am every day for exercise and imitated the relaying pose from television," she recalled.

Over the past 60-plus years as an NPC deputy, Shen has been in the best position to witness the profound changes in China.

"I rode a donkey, then a truck and then a train to arrive in Beijing for the 1954 meeting, spending four days. But today, it only took three hours by high-speed train," she says.

Shen has rendered hundreds of proposals and suggestions to the NPC in topics like rural development, education and anti-corruption.

Not all her comments are appreciated. In 2013, her support for stringent internet regulation drew wide controversy.

"Maybe I'm too old to follow the trends among the young, but that's the charm of our NPC system, having multiple voices heard," she says, adding that she watches TV news every day to keep up.

Her suggestions this year are about poverty alleviation, including rural roads and tailored measures to help lift people out of poverty.

She is delighted to see new, young faces among deputies, evoking her memories of attending her first NPC session over six decades ago.

"Deputies are elected by the people and should speak for them," she says.