When I drove through Northwest China’s Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region in 1994, it was one of the poorest places I’d ever seen in China or any other country. The arid province suffered from desertification and had an abysmal infrastructure. I spent hours driving up and down dirt roads that snaked around mountains from one hamlet of mud-walled homes to another.

Yet in spite of heartbreaking poverty, the people were cheerful, optimistic and kind, and I’d have never finished my 40,000 km drive without their help. During our three month journey, our van broke down completely only once—in Ningxia, just short of a mountain pass on a moonless night. I coasted the van backwards in the dark down hairpin curves until it coasted to a stop on a small patch of level ground. But as luck would have it, only 2 meters from my driver’s window was a small hand painted sign that read, “car repair”. It was after midnight but a wizened old grandpa opened the creaking wooden door, wiped the sleep from his eyes, looked at me closely, and asked, “You’re not from around here, are you?”

“No, I’m from Fujian,” I said, “and I’m headed to Tibet.” He nodded, and without another word helped me push the van into a courtyard littered with ancient car parts. He looked more like a farmer than a mechanic but appearances can be deceiving. Several award certificates were tacked to the rough wooden walls of his repair bay. He found the problem within minutes, and two hours later crawled out from under the van, wiped his greasy hands, and said, “I don’t have the right parts but at least it will get you to Lanzhou’s repair center.”

I was so grateful that I’d have paid any fee he demanded, but in spite of his obvious poverty and our wealth (in his eyes, at least), he asked for only a few Yuan and refused to accept more, apologizing that he’d not had all he needed to do the job right.

Young Xi Jinping Led Fujian to Ningxia

As we traveled about Ningxia, our hearts ached to meet so many kindhearted people like him trapped in such poverty. We’d have never dreamed then how much their lives would change within only 25 years—some of it in part because of my own Fujian Province.

China has tackled poverty so quickly by relying not just on top-down leadership and bottom up grassroots initiatives but also lateral support, with wealthier provinces partnering with their poorer counterparts. In 1996, only two years after our trip to Ningxia, Fujian’s young deputy Party secretary, Xi Jinping, led a delegation to Ningxia to explore ways to help what even UNESCO deemed one of the planet’s most destitute places. A year later, Xi proposed a resettlement program to move entire communities from the most desolate areas such as Xihaigu to more fertile land. Over 1 million people have now benefited from this program, which was so successful that it was later adopted across the entire country.

When we drove through Ningxia in July, 2019, I could scarcely believe this was the same wasteland I’d traversed in 1994. Modern highways and bullet train networks now crisscross the province. These are possible only because of the breathtaking bridges spanning the valleys and hi-tech tunnels so deep that the walls are lined with electronic light shows to keep drivers from dozing off.

Xiamen University Partners with Ningxia

Even more impressive was that Ningxia had greened as it had developed. Many of the formerly barren hills were now blanketed in grass, fields of corn or groves of fruit trees.

Ningxia had also become a center for manufacturing and research, and I felt proud to see several buildings built by Xiamen University, which has partnered with Ningxia for years. And imagine my delight when, on my second day, I encountered half a dozen of my former MBA students who had just flown in from Fujian to explore a new project.

Since 1958, Ningxia has lifted 3.3 million people from poverty, including 21.8% of the population during the last five years. But more moving than statistics are the firsthand accounts of changed lives—and the stories of young leaders like Mr. Tian Ye, a local who gave up lucrative opportunities after college in Xi’an to return home and help those he had grown up with escape poverty.

Mr. Tian Ye: A Passion for Fighting Poverty

A native of Ningxia’s Longde, when Tian Ye was a child his father had worked in the Water Conservancy Bureau in Qianjin Village, a hamlet nestled deep in an inaccessible valley and one of the county’s two poorest villages. “When I went to college in 2002,” Tian Ye recalled, “a reservoir was almost finished and they had a road. I wondered when I left if I’d ever see that village again.”

Tian Ye returned home after college but in September 2015 the local government sent him to Fujian’s Changle to broaden his experiences. “After my return home in June 2016, to my surprise I was put in charge of poverty alleviation for the county’s two poorest villages, Qianjin Village and Xinzhuang Village! When I left in 2002, almost all Qianjin Village homes were mud-walled. But when I returned in 2016 – nothing had changed! I’d changed, though. Although I still recognized the people, they did not recognize me, so when I first started, I didn’t tell them I had been there when I was young.”

Replacing Mud-Wall Death Traps

“At that time,” Tian Ye said, “the entire country was focused on poverty alleviation, and the most important task here was rebuilding the mud-walled houses. After a heavy rain of 40 days, our disaster relief team found one family huddled in a house whose earthen walls had been soaked. We begged them to leave before it collapsed on them but they refused. Finally, we had no choice but to force them out. As soon as we got them out, the sodden mud walls collapsed, with earth flying up in a small gray mushroom cloud.”

But the dangers of mud-walled homes were not new to Tian Ye, who had grown up in one. “I remember that in one year of heavy rain, we were at my aunt’s house. My mother and brother returned home first but I stayed behind because of the rain. When they got home, the door of our mud-walled home collapsed. My mom was so worried that I would be crushed when I returned home so she stood on the table in the upper room and waited for me.”

In 1994, Tian Ye’s father returned home one night and said to his wife, “Most villagers have built brick houses. Only we and one poor family still have mud-walled houses. If we don’t rebuild our own house, first, other people in the village will look down on us, and second, it really is unsafe when it rains.”

“My father smoked all night, brooding over this,” Tian Ye recalled, “and then he rose at dawn determined to build a brick house, which he finished two years later. I was only 12 but I remember vividly to this day the pride I felt in our new home. Later, when I was in charge of poverty alleviation and helped people build new homes, I felt just as proud as I did when my dad finished our new home in 1996. No difference!”

No Roads, No Houses

Tian Ye expected villagers to be grateful when he began implementing the county decree to replace the mud-wall death traps with safe, clean brick homes, but to his surprise he faced two problems. One, the people said they had no money to build new homes. Two, they did not really believe that mud-walled houses were dangerous. Tian Ye shook his head in disbelief. “We saw with our own eyes that mud walls soaked by heavy rain could not bear the weight and collapsed, but the people really could not grasp the danger, and did not want to waste what little hard-earned money they had on a new house. They did not see the point.”

Tian Ye persisted. “The county says everyone must demolish the mud house and build a new brick home. The state policy and subsidy is very good now. If you don’t seize this opportunity, you may never have another opportunity like this in the future.”

The people finally said, “Ok, Secretary Tian, we can build a house – but first you must build a hardened road to our village.”

“I will definitely get you a cement road,” Tian Ye promised them, “but the timing is uncertain. Not this year, but definitely next year. Such a large project requires approval by higher authorities.”

“No road, no house!” the people replied. “When the road is built, we will rebuild the house, but if we build a house with no road, we can’t come or go. It makes no sense.”

Tian Ye admitted they had a point, and since Qianjin Village was the county’s largest poor village, he laid his neck on the line by promising, “I will definitely build your road.”

The next time they had a big rain, Tian Ye brought county leaders to Qianjin Village. “As soon as they saw the situation firsthand, they agreed it was intolerable,” Tian Ye said. “They approved the road project and the people were happy.” Yet even with generous government subsidies, some people still could not afford a new home.

If Son Doesn’t Care, Why Do You?

“At that time, there was an elderly lady whose son did not help her because he’d had a conflict with his father. Her small Qing Dynasty mud-walled house had wide and very dangerous cracks, but she and her husband were both 68 years old and had no money for repairs. I urged them, daily, to rebuild, but the old man never let on that he had no money. He just shouted at me over and over, ‘I won’t do it. I just won’t do it!’”

At first, the man even cursed young Tian Ye, but as the villagers slowly came to know him and realized he was working hard to help them, the old man’s heart softened. He finally allowed Tian Ye inside their home and the young leader saw that the elderly couple indeed did not have a penny to their name.

“Don’t worry,” Tian Ye reassured him. “The government will subsidize it. If the money is not enough, I will ask the county’s poverty alleviation office for more money. Together that is over 30,000 Yuan – surely enough to build you a safe new home.”

The old man replied, “I don’t want to trouble you. If this mud house collapses and I die, I die. If my own son doesn’t care, why should you?”

Tian Ye was adamant. “I’m in charge of poverty alleviation here, so it is my duty to provide you a safe home. I promise you I will raze this old house and build you a safe brick house.”

The couple finally agreed, and the villagers helped move their things to another house. “After I’d razed their dilapidated mud-walled house I reported this special situation to my superiors. The leader replied, ‘Make this a priority.’ So I found a construction team to build the new house. The construction boss said, ‘There is no profit in building this house,’ but villagers help gather unused bricks lying about – and that’s how we were able to build the elderly couple’s new home.”

But when the house was finished, Tian Ye was still 10,000 Yuan short. Once again he traipsed to the county’s poverty alleviation office. After the leader had verified that the couple was truly destitute, he said, “We must be practical when we help the poor, and help those in the greatest need. This is truly a case of greatest need. Although I risk being charged with violation of discipline, I must allocate the money.” Tian Ye soon had the 10,000 Yuan to pay off the construction boss.

No Place to Cook

When Tian Ye took a deputy county magistrate in charge of poverty alleviation to inspect the complete house, he could see that the elderly lady had something to say to the magistrate, so he asked her what was on her mind.

“I live very comfortably in this house, thanks to the government,” she said, “but there is no place to cook.”

So Tian Ye promptly found another contractor and built a small kitchen next door.

“In the first half of 2018,” Tian Ye said, “that same deputy magistrate visited our village again to see the conditions of the poorest people. In our village, the existence of safe housing is one of the key benchmarks of poverty alleviation. Since I had been in charge of poverty alleviation, I myself showed him some ordinary Qianjin Village homes; that way, if we did see any issues, I could deal with them directly.”

The villagers were happy to see Tian Ye, who had finished his work in Qianjin and moved on to another village. “Later, when I went back to see them, they took my hand and said, ‘Secretary Tian, I haven’t seen you for half a year, have you been busy recently?’ Then they told me about their situations at home. Everyone seemed happy.”

The last house Tian Ye visited was the elderly couple’s home. “As soon as we entered, she took my hand and said, tremblingly, ‘I feel like I may not live out this year, but now that I can see you before I die, I am satisfied. You helped me solve such a big problem.’

The county magistrate asked her, “Do you have any other needs?”

Dying Without Regret

She said, “No, I asked for a kitchen; Secretary Tian has built it for me. It is enough that I can see Secretary Tian again this year, and I am satisfied. Even if I die soon, I have no regret.”

“When she said this,” Tian Ye recalled, “the county magistrate looked strangely at me. Once back in the car, he asked me, ‘Tian, what are your thoughts on grassroots work?’

‘In grassroots work,’ I replied, ‘we must be practical, and seize every opportunity, because if we miss an opportunity, we may not easily find another chance to help the people. Our people are very good, but often we approach them the wrong way. Just like this old man – he has a bad temper, and at first would not even let me in his house. But after speaking with him many times, he finally understood I really was just trying to help him. So in grassroots work, if I can only find the right approach, I can definitely persevere.’”

Tian Ye’s other village, Xinzhuang, was initially just as poor as Qianjin Village, but he had an easier time of it because the very capable village leaders had already persuaded the people to build new homes. But behind the mountain were two groups of people, all of whom lived in mud-walled homes on arid ground and were scheduled for relocation to fertile land. By the end of the 12th Five-Year Plan period, there was still no sign of moving them, so Tian Ye intervened. Like Qianjin Village, their biggest problem was no road, so he fell back on his proven tactic. “Every day, I took leaders to see the situation until they approved the project.”

First—To the Doorsteps!

Such a tactic worked, Tian Ye explained, because all leaders had to adhere to strict poverty alleviation guidelines and policies, and were held accountable to lift every family from poverty. “What leaders most fear,” Tian Ye said, “is having even one village where poverty alleviation has not been done well, or roads have not been built. When I was building the road, a poverty alleviation office leader said in one meeting that because of tight finances, they would first build the main road but stop about 2 or 3 meters short of each house’s doorstep. But I knew that waiting until later to finish the last part to each house would be more wasteful and they might not find anyone willing to do such small jobs. So I told the construction boss, ‘First build the roads right to each households’ doorstep. Once you’re finished, if there is not enough money to continue, we will apply for more from the county.’ The construction boss agreed, and the entire road system was built at one time. We were the first village in the entire county to have completed house-to-road access, and by 2018, we had renovated over 90% of old houses. Since then, other villages have seen our results and followed suit.”

“It is obvious that villagers’ homes have changed a lot,” I said to Tian Ye, “but has life changed in other ways?”

“Great changes!” Tian Ye said, “Especially in food and other areas. I remember as a kid having only spinach and sauerkraut to eat in winter. Today, thanks to roads right to our doorsteps, even the poorest people can choose to grow their own vegetables or buy from markets. We can enjoy fresh vegetables every day and even meat anytime we want it. In the past, poor transportation made it difficult to eat meat. But with good roads, people have money. If you don’t want to prepare it at home, you can always go to town and eat in a restaurant.”

“But how do they earn money?” I asked.

“Now that we have convenient roads,” Tian Ye said, “ordinary people can go out to work and earn over 100 Yuan a day. Before we had good roads, even if they wanted to work, it took one or two hours just to cross the mountain; today, it’s only a dozen minutes’ walk to town. Good roads allow us to engage in aquaculture, and now we can easily transport cattle feed. Before roads, if you had 10 cattle to raise, you could not get the feed for them. Nowadays, even if you have 20 cattle, you have no problem getting feed or whatever else is needed. And the government has subsidies. If you raise a cow, or a calf is born, the government will subsidize it. The country’s policies are great, giving even ordinary people a chance to prosper.

“And we encourage people to be entrepreneurial and take out business loans, and the government will repay the interest for them. With these loans, they can raise cattle or expand their cultivation at home. People have seized these opportunities, and those who once had two cattle now raise eight or nine.

Roads Lead Out—And Back Home Again

“Before we had good roads, people used to seek work far away to earn money for their families, but if you calculate it, you still have to eat and drink, so in the end you don’t really make that much. But nowadays many of them are returning home. We are very mountainous and can grow grass or corn, and after harvest, we can use the stalks as cattle feed. Many people raise more than six cows. If they sell just two cows a year, they earn 30,000 Yuan. If you go somewhere else to work, and don’t eat or drink for a year, you’ll still only earn 30,000 a year! Now you can earn just as much money staying home, where you can also help care for the elderly and children, and if you are tired, you can choose to take a break. There’s no need to go far afield and daily work yourself into the ground.”

“I have one last question,” I said. “I called my wife last night to tell her I was in Ningxia, and she remembered that in 1994, we saw many people on the roadsides selling rats. Why buy and sell rats? Do you eat them?”

Tian Ye laughed. “They weren’t selling rats. They were exchanging them for free rat poison. When I was a kid my mom took me to town shopping and I too was puzzled about why people would sell rats.”

“I haven’t seen people with rats this time,” I said.

Tian Ye grinned. “That’s because all of the houses are brick now and rats can’t get in, so people rarely see rats in their homes.”

Tian Ye was not exaggerating. Every village I saw had concrete roads leading to the very doorsteps of homes, all of which were brick. Although the houses were not large – the government subsidizes 10 squ. m per family member – they were safe and clean. And they weren’t just utilitarian cookie cutter brick boxes. Each home boasted a bit of decorative trim that gave it a simple but elegant Chinese flair. I later saw this same feature in remote minority areas, such as the land of the Lisu tribes in West Yunnan, where the government made people’s new houses more “homelike” by incorporating cultural elements into the architecture.

No Longer just Frogs in a Well

Tian Ye joined us as we visited Ningxia farmers and entrepreneurs, and a business center that Xiamen University had helped build. I marveled at the changes since 1994, but I was most moved by the people’s spirit. They were happy, relaxed, and obviously quite proud of their newfound prosperity. I was especially delighted to have a chance to give a talk at a junior high school and afterwards take a group photo with the children. Their bright eyes and cheerful laughter were proof enough to me that Ningxia folks, young and old, have faith in their future.

“Why do you think things have changed so much so quickly?” I asked one elderly farmer.

“Well, the government knows our situation,” he said, “and the leaders care for us. Before we had roads, we were like frogs in a well. We could see only the patch of sky right overhead, and there was no escape. But now we’re free.”

When the farmer asked to scan my WeChat contact, I thought back to 1990, when even in Xiamen, a coastal Special Economic Zone, I spent USD 450 to apply for a home phone and waited three years for it to be installed. Today, even farmers in the remotest corners of Ningxia, Gansu and Tibet have mobile phones, use WeChat, and buy and sell on Taobao.

I was delighted to see Ningxia’s changes, and as we continued our journey west, we discovered that every corner of rural China had benefited from Beijing’s visionary anti-poverty program—thanks in part to the passionate persistence of young leaders like Tian Ye.

I hope the world will someday better understand not only the Chinese Dream but also the dreamers who have made it a reality. And thanks to selfless teachers like Ms. Yan Guizhen in West China’s Jiayuguan, the dreamers’ children have even greater hopes for the future.