Villagers remember man who gave them a road out of poverty

Qin Yuanfeng devoted life to aiding the poor

Qin Yuanfeng, former financial commissioner for Xiping village in Yichang, Hubei province, dedicated his life to poverty alleviation work before dying from liver cancer in December at the age of 59.

"He was always concerned about the villagers' lives, not even spending a moment caring for himself," his widow, Zou Deshou, said. "He gave almost everything to the work."

Xiping, one of the 14 villages listed as areas in deep poverty in Yichang's Changyang Tujia autonomous county, covers an area of nearly 20 square kilometers. It's an integrated administrative unit combining four villages-Shidu, Maoping, Chiping and Xiping-set up in 2002.

The more than 2,000 villagers in the new Xiping used to live in the hills, at altitudes from 200 to 1,200 meters, with 600 of them living in poverty on barren land with no road access. Some have since been relocated.

"My husband and I were from another village, Shidu, neighboring Xiping, but the situation there was almost the same," Zou, 56, said. "The villagers had to walk a narrow dirt track to get to Yuxiakou town for work. It was not even a roadway, but a path on the cliff side. It was dangerous."

Qin decided to build a road connecting Shidu and the neighboring villages to Yuxiakou to make it easier and safer for them to go to work and deliver agricultural produce for sale.

"It was about 30 years ago when he had the idea," Zou said. "But there were problems, from the money to workers. People were engaged with their farm work, and were too poor to spare a cent for the road construction work.

"He was a brave man. The family members once sought to dissuade him but he was not frightened off. I still remember what he said to us, that our villagers have been trapped in the mountain, living in poverty, for generations because of the lack of a road. He said, 'No matter what it will cost, money or even my life, I swear to build a road to help us get free from this poor life'."

Qin often measured land, tidied up tree branches and even bargained with bank officers for a loan during the decadelong road construction project. The 3.5-meter-wide road, finished in 2008, stretches nearly 5 kilometers from Suifeng cove to Shidu. Qin Shican, Xiping village's Party secretary, said it made life more convenient for over 1,000 villagers from 300-plus households.

"He was a man of mild temper but with great resilience and spirit," Qin Shican said. "He insisted on working when he was severely ill.

"In July 2017, when he was in poor health, but he still worked on the village's poverty alleviation project after getting an injection at the hospital. He suffered not only from liver cancer, but also five or six other diseases."

He said Qin Yuanfeng was a great contributor to the village's prosperity. "Thirty-three villagers were lifted from poverty in 2016, while the number reached 125 in 2017," he said. "The annual income has increased by 1,511 yuan ($230) per capita in the past three years."

When remembering Qin Yuanfeng, 47-year-old villager Qin Shoujun couldn't help crying. "Qin Yuanfeng was the benefactor of my family," he said. "He helped get us out of poverty, but won't see us and the prosperous village again."

Qin Shoujun used to cultivate crops such as corn and rice, which earned him only about 7,000 yuan a year, but things improved after Qin Yuanfeng taught him how to grow ponkan-a high-yield, sweet citrus cultivar with a fruit like an orange.

"He introduced ponkan into our village and taught villagers living in poverty to grow it," Qin Shoujun said. "He was too busy to look after his own orchard but he never complained.

"Now I've changed my farmland into a ponkan orchard, with the annual income increasing to over 10,000 yuan.

"I will never forget him, and I think everyone in the village will never forget him for his help and dedication."

Contacts the writers at chengsi@chinadaily.com.cn