To rejuvenate a nation, the rural areas must be revitalized. In the past ten years, Jingzhou has got off to a good start in comprehensively promoting rural revitalization by winning the tough fight against poverty and consolidating and expanding its achievements. The city's agricultural production is more high-quality and efficient, its beautiful countryside more livable and suitable for starting business and farmers' life richer and more thriving. Villagers are embracing a brighter future happily.

Jingzhou was the largest poverty-stricken city in Hubei Province. Xiejiaping Township, known as the roof of Jingzhou, was one of the two deep poverty-stricken towns in the city. In 2015, among the some 10,000 people, there were 1,820 living in absolute poverty.

Because of poverty, more than 6,000 people left the township to find jobs. Villager Zheng Xingbing is one of them. In 2012, he came back to his hometown with his girlfriend Zhang Laomin, whom he met with when working in another city, to get married.

Under the guidance of the concept of "precision poverty alleviation", Xiejiaping Township has helped poor households to discover the causes of poverty and development bottlenecks, and formulated the "one policy for one household" assistance plan. In 2014, the village provided Zheng with a discount loan of RMB50,000 to develop eco-farming. Zheng paid off the loan by the end of the year. In 2017, Zheng earned more than RMB 100,000 and got out of poverty that year. In 2018, Zheng and Zhang finally tied the knot.

In 2015, the fight against poverty kicked off in an all-round way. By the end of 2020, all the 400,500 people in the 371 poverty-stricken villages had got out of poverty as scheduled. In order to continue to promote the development of poverty-stricken areas and improve people's lives, Jingzhou has vigorously consolidated and expanded its achievements in poverty alleviation through rural revitalization.

After the reporter walked into Keli Village, Laowanhuizu Township, Honghu City in the late autumn, rows of neatly-arranged Anhui-style buildings came in sight. At present, Keli Village has become a "famous tourist village in Hubei Province" and "a model village in Hubei Province". In addition, the village has been selected into the fifth batch of "Chinese traditional villages".

From getting rid of poverty to rural revitalization, then to creating a beautiful environment and happy life, the local villages have been changing tremendously.

In recent years, more than 4,000 square meters of illegal houses have been demolished in Changhu Village, Luochang Township, Shashi District. In addition, 2,200 meters of ditches have been dug in the village and all the village paths connected.

Building a beautiful countryside is an important carrier to promote the rural revitalization strategy. By the end of last year, the city had allocated RMB4.626 billion of agriculture-related funds to support rural revitalization, and all the debts of the 54 villages (with debts of less than RMB100,000) were paid off.

In order to build "Jingzhou Model" for the construction of a beautiful countryside in the new era, Jingzhou has deployed and implemented a five-year action to improve the rural living environment on the basis of a three-year action to improve the rural living environment, and planned six categories of related projects, involving 111 towns and 1,063 villages (communities and state-owned forest farms). The construction of 208 villages and 29 belt zones will kick off first to promote rural revitalization, and a long-term management and protection mechanism will be established and improved for environmental remediation.

Under the guidance of the spirit of the 20th Party Congress, Jingzhou will set sail again with confidence to embrace a brighter future.