Giving a Helping Hand

The village of Nanyu in Baoding City, Hebei Province in north China is only two hours’ drive from capital Beijing. Yet in 2015, the distance seemed to be over-whelming, especially in terms of income.

The average annual income of the villagers was about 2,000 yuan ($285) that year. Nearly 26 percent of the families were impoverished and more than 100 people lived below the national poverty line. In sharp contrast, the per-capita annual income for rural residents in China was 10,772 yuan ($1,536) in the same year.

But by 2018, the village had