Volunteer graduates head out west to support development in rural areas

For 22-year-old Guo Chao, taking some time out from his arts degree in Hunan province has given him the opportunity to contribute to a far-off rural community as one of the nation's dedicated young volunteers.

When signing up for the Communist Youth League volunteering program, Guo had little idea that in just a short while he'd be in the tiny town of Santanghu on China's border with Mongolia in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.

He'd also have little idea that one of his first tasks in the town in the region's Hami prefecture, would be slicing peppers.

"After being transferred to the town in late July, my peers and I spent a whole month chopping hot peppers for the local villagers," said Guo, who added that the elderly residents treated their new guests as if they were their grandchildren.

One of Santanghu's specialties is hot peppers, but for many of the elderly residents the time-consuming work of picking them, chopping them open and drying them has become a difficult task.

That's where the young volunteers can step in and try to make their lives a little easier.

"We all wore protective gloves but our fingers still got pepper burns after the juices seeped through. But the sense of achievement I felt after seeing the villagers hanging their hot peppers out to dry and then selling them at a good price was far more than I had imagined.

"Cutting those peppers made me see things in a more down-to-earth way. In the past I'd dreamed of doing something 'earth-shattering' in my life, but I've realized now that there are no noble or humble jobs, and we can all contribute in our own way," he added.