Battle against poverty still hard in remote mountains

NANNING - Towering mountains ring Longmu village, blocking people and services from the outside and keeping the residents locked in a battle with poverty.

The village has only 12 families, all squeezed in nine shabby sheds made of bamboo and wood.

Before electricity became available in 2009, villagers used kerosene lamps for generations.

Life in Longmu village is just a snapshot of more than five million impoverished people in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, where most residents of the country's key ethnic groups live.

Data from National Bureau of Statistics showed that the region's 12 resident ethnic minorities account for nearly a quarter of its 47.54 million population.

The national poverty reduction strategy has focuses on mountainous areas, but the fact that the poor are dispersed throughout Guangxi's remote mountains makes poverty alleviation difficult.

The Chinese government pledged to enact more support policies to lift the country's 70 million poor people above the poverty line by 2020, according to President Xi Jinping at the Global Poverty Reduction and Development Forum in Beijing last month.

Poverty relief remains a top priority for China and the central government will hold a Poverty Alleviation and Development Conference on Nov 26, showing the government's will in the fight against poverty, especially helping ethnic minorities out of poverty.