"I have been wondering if it isn't my destiny to have a happy family," Li Dongdong said.  When he was in the valley of life, this 39-year-old man once looked back in despair.

"When I was a kid, my family struggled with poverty. We lived in a dilapidated cave house, where six of us slept on one kang (a traditional-styled heated brick bed often seen in north China)," Li said. He was born in a poor village in Yan'an City, northwest China's Shaanxi Province. At the age of 16, he dropped out of school and became an apprentice to support his family with a small income.

Lady luck seemed to avert his family. In 2003, Li's first son was born with hydrocephaly and cerebral palsy. Most of the money Li saved was used to pay the boy's medical bills. What's worse, his parents got ill, and his wife was diagnosed with cancer. Troubles were endless, making the family even more cash strapped.

"I had to spend all the money I earned on medical bills and borrowed a lot from my relatives and friends. And I had to work hard while taking care of the family. After more than 10 years of toil, my health condition is getting worse," Li said.

Heping Village, where Li lives, was a poverty-stricken village at the city level. As many as 60 households had fallen into poverty because of illness, disability, pressure from tuition fees or natural disaster.

"My world fell apart," the honest Li said. 

In 2016, during the implementation of targeted poverty alleviation programs, the government registered the poverty-stricken households. Li and other poor families in Heping Village were included on the list. Thanks to the policy, the villagers now enjoy a reimbursement rate of more than 90 percent for their medical bills, a big relief of their financial burden.

Located in Ansai District of Yan'an City, Heping Village is known as "the hometown of the waist drum." The government provided free training of Ansai waist drum dance to help people lift themselves out of poverty with this traditional skill. Through the training, Li became a waist drum dancer and now earns more money than before.

"In general, I work six to eight hours a day for less than 200 yuan. Waist drum dancing gets me 300 yuan a day for less than four hours," says Li.

With targeted poverty alleviation strategies, Li and his family moved into a government-subsidized home. By October 2018, all 60 registered poverty-stricken households in Heping Village had been successfully lifted out of poverty. Impoverished counties in Yan'an City completely bid farewell to absolute poverty.

Having shaken off poverty, villagers look forward to a better life.