The decade that transformed China

Chronicling the changes

By Peng Yining in Xiji, the Ningxia Hui autonomous region

Living in a poverty-stricken village in Xiji county in the Ningxia Hui autonomous region, Yuan Zhixue, a 36-year-old farmer who dropped out of high school, wrote a novel describing the huge changes that have taken place in his life since 2002.