Poverty stricken Zhaotong sees leap-frog development

Locked in the hinterland of the Wumeng mountain ranges, northeast Yunnan’s Zhaotong city features tough and rocky terrains that posed grave challenges to locals’ dream of a prosperous life. 

By the end of 2014, the city had a population of more than 6 million, of whom 1.85 million were living in poverty. Back then, Zhaotong topped all of China’s prefecture-level cities in the number of poor residents.

Battling poverty with unprecedented practices over the past years, the city has resettled 360,000 people who used to live in impoverished areas cut off from modern civilization by high mountains. 

Other poverty-reduction measures adopted by Zhaotong include constructing transport facilities and cultivating industries worth tens of billions of RMB. Local specialties of red apples and high-quality potatoes were popular among consumers home and abroad. 

Source: Xinhua; trans-editing by Wang Shixue