Impoverished people welcome brand-new life thanks to poverty alleviation efforts in SW China's Yunnan Province

Combo photo shows villager Yan Fugao and his wife Wang Daxiang posing for a group photo in front of their old house at Luoqiu Village in Daxing Town of Yongshan County, southwest China's Yunnan Province, March 14, 2020 (up) and within their new house at Maojiawan resettlement area for impoverished people in Ludian County of Yunnan, March 15, 2020. (Xinhua/Jiang Wenyao)

Nestling deep in mountains of southwest China's Yunnan Province, Luoqiu Village is home to only dozens of households scattering in mountain valley. Villager Yan Fugao and his wife Wang Daxiang have lived here for more than 20 years.

Harsh mountainous environment here has severely restricted local people's economic activities and caused some of them poor. Yan Fugao's family is among them, and was identified in 2014 as a poverty-stricken household under China's standard of poverty evaluation. In 2017, local authorities made the decision to relocate impoverished people in Luoqiu Village to Maojiawan resettlement area, which is built for the poor in the province's Ludian County.

On March 15, Yan Fugao and his wife set off by bus organized by local government with other 101 households, heading to their new house in Maojiawan, about 190 km away from where they live. After five hours of travelling, they arrived at the resettlement area where they will start a brand new life.