-- A mountainous town in Fujian, China has witnessed tremendous changes in 30 years, due to persistent poverty alleviation efforts.

-- Xi Jinping visited Xiadang three times, and personally directed poverty relief in the remote town.

-- China is on course to achieve its goal of lifting all rural residents below the current poverty line out of poverty by 2020.

by Xinhua writers Cao Ying, Jia Xiaotong and Yang Zhixiang

BEIJING, Nov. 1  -- Wang Guangchao, a 73-year-old farmer in a mountainous, remote town of eastern China, has always marveled at how his life has taken such a drastic turn.

From being poorly fed and clad to having his own teahouse, Wang has seen his family rising above the poverty line and enjoying a decent life at Xiadang Township in Fujian Province.

He owes the great changes in his hometown to Xi Jinping, who is now the general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee.

GREAT CHANGES IN SMALL TOWN

Xiadang, nestled deep in the mountains, used to be one of the poorest townships in Fujian.

Wang, a native of Xiadang, can still recall their destitute lives several decades ago, due to the forbidding mountain peaks and a lack of decent road leading outside.

"We would have mixed feelings even when raising a pig. On the one hand, we hoped that it could gain more weight as our entire family depended on it for a living. However, if it did gain weight, we would worry about how to carry it out for selling," said Wang.

Over the past 30 years, thanks to poverty alleviation efforts, tremendous changes have occurred in the township. Residents' per capita annual income increased from a mere 200 yuan (29.8 USD) to 13,000 yuan (about 2,000 USD).

In 2017, Wang revamped his old shabby house, and, helped by the development of local tourism and hospitality industry, opened his own teahouse, which attracts at least thousands of tourists each year.

He also sells his tea products online, which generates solid revenue.

"We develop tourism in Xiadang. When tourists arrive here, they would take a look around. And we offer a place where they can sit down for a cup of tea. I also bring them my homemade tea. Now I can earn an average net income of over 40,000 yuan (about 6,000 USD) a year," said Wang.

Wang named his teahouse "Happiness."

"We are living a good life now," he said, "It all started 30 years ago, when Secretary Xi Jinping came to the village."