Guo Fenglian(L5) and other local leaders in Dazhai, 1960s [Xinhua]

Dazhai, a small village with a population of about 520 in the Taihang Mountains in north China's Shanxi Province, has seen dramatic developments in agriculture and profound industrial achievements brought about by a market economy in the past decades.

Before 1949, Dazhai was a typical poverty-stricken rural Chinese village. But the founding of New China gave Dazhai's people great confidence to defy all hardships and fight the difficult hand nature had dealt them.

In the 1960s and 70s, fewer than 300 villagers proved humans' ability to tame nature by transforming rocky hills into 500 mu (33.3 hectares) of arable cropland, terracing the barren swaths and changing the scant hilly land into fine, arable farmland. Dazhai villagers created high-yield terraced farmland out of barren hillsides, a feat some called miraculous. At that time, it was held up as a model village and became a household name. Chinaman Mao called on the whole nation to follow Dazhai's example, and about 10 million people from home and abroad visited the village to learn from their experiences. In the 1980s, while China was promoting reform and opening-up nationwide, Dazhai villagers followed other parts of the country in introducing the household contract system, a policy linking production with income, finally addressing the millennia-old problem of ensuring sufficient food and clothing for Chinese farmers.

During this turning point in Chinese history, the central government actively promoted agricultural enterprises and industrialization as a means of revitalizing rural areas. Influenced by opening up from the early 1980s, the enterprising spirit of Dazhai has carried on, going to great lengths to develop a collective and export-oriented economy, which has brought more profound changes to the village. Rural labor has shifted away from farming, stimulated industry and triggered an entire economic restructuring.

Guo Fenglian, Dazhai's Party Secretary, is now in her early 50s. She is still known as the "Iron Lady" for her perseverance during the difficult times at the beginning of the reform and opening up drive, when she led the village toward a market economy. "The village cannot depend on planting crops because Dazhai locals won't get rich solely on the output from their 500 or so mu of farmland," Guo once said. She knew she had to lead the villagers to find new ways out.

After many attempts at running all kinds of businesses, they were successful with the coal industry, which emboldened Guo to establish and lead other Dazhai enterprises, such as cement production, local tourism and modern agriculture.

Nowadays, Guo is the general manager of Dazhai Economic Development Company. Dazhai is no longer a farming village. It is now engaged in coal mining, cement, garment and liquor manufacturing, tourism and trading.

What's more, grain production on the terraced land led to afforestation. Dazhai has invested 100,000 yuan, or about US$14,705, annually in planting trees and in farmland transformation since 1995. Cypress, pines, peach, date and apricot trees can be seen on hills surrounding the village, where over one hundred families occupy a complex of new two-story villas at the foot of the hills.

To date, Dazhai village produces 22 kinds of products, ranging from chemicals, building materials, drinks and garments to farm produce and byproducts. The products are labeled "Dazhai," which was officially approved as a "Chinese famous trademark" this year, known for its good quality and reputation.