Hello to the New Good Life

Many people wish to take a picture in front of Tian’anmen in Beijing. One villager, Padma, poses in front of a picture of Tian’anmen at the village before he can really go to the capital.

The village-stationed cadres have gone to great lengths to promote science and technology. They selected two villagers for training in scientific knowledge and technologies. They, in turn, instruct other villagers each year in crop growing and livestock farming. Each local technician is equipped with a mobile data terminal that gives access to pictures, texts and Tibetan language videos. This makes it much easier for technicians to pass on relevant agricultural technologies among local farmers. To further enhance the spread of information, a wireless LAN covering the whole village has been established.

“The team has wrought huge changes in Bading Village,” secretary of the CPC Chagjug Town Committee, Jiang Ming-lei, said. “Cadres have made every effort to advance local economic development and improve local infrastructure. Funds have been invested and yielded good results,” Jiang added.

The standard of education in Bading Village has in the past been consistently low. Social progress and the development of China’s education system, however, have highlighted the importance of schooling. Bading Village has a total of 120 students, seven of whom are college undergraduates. To encourage more poor students to stay in education, village-stationed cadres have worked with the Tibet Institute of Scientific and Technological Information to solicit donations and set up scholarships for students from impoverished families.

Cadres have contacted various charity organizations and people willing to help, and received from them donations of brand new winter clothes worth around RMB 170,000, as well as 1,800 items of used clothing and various stationery items. The team also allocates RMB 10,000 every year for buying quilts and warm clothes for poor people, demobilized soldiers, and senior citizens.

Shaking off Poverty

Over the past five years, the hard work of village-stationed cadres has transformed Bading Village. There are now only 20 poor households in the village – around 40 percent of the total 52 – which is a considerably reduced proportion. Large scale infrastructure construction has created many job opportunities for locals, enabling them to stay with their families and work in the village rather than living and working elsewhere. In 2015, Bading Village generated revenues exceeding RMB 200,000. Improvements to the local infrastructure and living environment have thus brought local villagers higher incomes and a better life.