Over 1 million people lifted out of poverty in Fujian

By planting jasmine and running a tea-making workshop, the villagers' income reported a remarkable rise.

The poverty alleviation campaign also spurred the growth of local cultural events and tourism, which was achieved by using the internet and local tourism resources.

Antai Art Town in Pingnan county, known as an art gallery offering education, academic exchanges, cultural experiences, artwork trading and cultural tourism, is another example.

Currently, the town has provided jobs to 215 impoverished households and 226 disabled people after training them to work. A group of disabled artists have emerged including Shen Minghui and Xue Meilan. More than 5,000 artworks of the trainees have been sold, earning more than 1 million yuan.

In addition, the campaign adopted an innovative agricultural model for poverty alleviation by combining agricultural and financial tools to link farmers with the market.

Since 1994, the Fujian provincial government has been promoting a relocation plan, which involved moving the residents living in the remote mountainous villages to richer regions.

By the end of 2016, 1.57 million people had been relocated and more than 7,200 villages had been replaced.

The province also initiated an overall assistant system to combine the resources of the divided regions, especially between the coastal and inland areas.

Up to now 136 companies, chambers of commerce and overseas guilds have been encouraged to help 101 villages in the province. Thanks to their efforts 1,152 families have received more than 16 million yuan.