Fu Yuqing has now moved to a new village with homes built of bricks and streets leading to gleaming highways, but the 17-year-old girl said Baicha Village in south China's Hainan Province, where she grew up, is still her favorite place.

"I like playing with my friends in the old village. There are many coconut trees here, where it is cool and comfortable compared to the new village, especially in the summer," Fu told CGTN.

Fu is studying indoor decorations at a vocational school in Haikou, the capital city of Hainan. "I lived in the old village for around seven years after I was born. And after coming home from the holiday, I come here to play whenever I have time."

What she called the "old village" is the Li ethnic group's last ancient community in China. It is in Baicha, a remote village located in Dongfang City in eastern Hainan. More than 500 people still live off the land there, planting arecas and mangoes.

The thatched cottages in the village are like boats turned upside-down – in fact they're called "boat houses" by locals. The 81 homes still standing in the village were included in China's intangible cultural heritage protection list in 2008.

China has long been dedicated to eradicating poverty, contributing to more than 70 percent of global poverty reduction. Through eight years of sustained work, the country's entire rural poor population has been lifted out of poverty. One important part of the poverty alleviation process is helping impoverished people move from mountainous regions to resettle in places with better natural environments and living conditions.

According to Hu Yue, one of the members of the government designated poverty reduction workgroup stationed in Baicha, the boat houses have been built over decades and are too primitive to be lived in. To improve villagers' lives, better protect the heritage and develop the tourism industry, the whole village was relocated one kilometer away about 10 years ago.

"The construction of the new village was sponsored by the government, including funds and building materials; and to encourage villagers to move, the first group of relocated villagers also received a subsidy of 500 yuan (about $77) per person," Hu said.

"Meanwhile, since the craftsmanship of old boat houses has become a cherished cultural heritage, and those houses need regular repairs, the government hires villagers to repair the houses. In this way, villagers obtain one more income." 

To be rich, build roads first

There is an old Chinese saying, "If you want to be rich, build roads first." People, especially in the remote hilly areas, often can't capitalize on a heavy harvest because it's too difficult for them to transport the fruits or crops due to poor roads.

Like other villagers in Baicha, Fu Chunying, a 64-year-old man, with the help of his two sons, has planted almost 300 mango trees. During a bad harvest, he weaves bamboo baskets and takes them to the neighboring town to sell.

Fu said he has lived in the new village for over eight years. "I didn't want to move at first because the boat house of my family was built by my grandfather and our family has lived here for more than 100 years. However, the new house is near the newly-built road, which is more solid and more convenient."

Local governments have tasked different departments with poverty alleviation work. Hainan's Department of Transportation was selected to help Baicha, and has built water towers and public toilets as well as drains for villagers since 2015.

Last year, it asphalted the original dirt track into a 2-kilometer-long, 7-meter-wide road and also built a new cement roadway in the village.

"Life now is much better than before," Fu Chunying said. "Now I can step on the concrete road as soon as I leave my home, and almost every household in the village now has motorcycles and electric bicycles and villagers can also take the bus into the city."

"During a bumper harvest, there are merchants from other provinces who can more easily transport the harvested mangoes out of the village thanks to the new road."

Teenagers in the village

"In the past, after graduating from junior high school, children in Baicha rarely went on to higher education," Hu said. "They went to the town or the city to make a living. Most of them were girls, and the main job was waitressing due to their low education level."

Hu said most boys chose to stay at home to help their parents plant mangoes or arecas.

Chen Yonggui is one such man. He was born in 1994 and after graduating from junior high, he worked in a bar in a nearby city and then went back home to plant nearly 500 areca trees and 600 mango trees with his elder brother. "My parents are old, someone has to do the farm work at home."

He said that he also has a younger brother who is working in Haikou, as well as a younger sister who is a student. "Girls can't do heavy work, so it's better to let her read more books."

"We also hope that the children in the village read more, but after sending them to school, they often skip class and run home, so now we try to teach them the techniques of planting mango trees," Hu said.

"Boys about my age basically don't go to school after graduating from junior high," Fu Yuqing added. "But my parents hope I go to school and learn more to get a diploma as much as possible."

"My elder brother wants to build another house for his two children because the current house in the new village will be too small to live in when the children grow up. But we don't have so much money now, so if I find a good job, I can help him."

"I will go for an internship after graduation," she said, adding that she wants to work outside the village if she can find the right job.

Poverty alleviation through industry

The poverty reduction work team in Baicha has four members, two from Hainan's transportation department and two Dongfang City's transportation bureau. It works on a rotation system, whereby members are changed every two years.

The provincial transportation department often invites agricultural experts into the village to conduct training courses on planting techniques, and distributes fertilizers and pesticides for free, Fu Chunying said.

Hu Yue added that the poverty reduction work team also helps look for more buyers to unload slow-moving mango or areca inventory.

As of the end of October last year, all 121 impoverished households in the village had been lifted out of poverty.

"However, banks are not very willing to provide us with loans, worrying that us farmers will not be successful without the expertise to expand the scale of planting," Fu explained.

The local government has been planning to develop tourism to get more income for the villagers. The silence of the village has been gradually broken by sporadic groups of tourists attracted by the boat houses.

But Hu said that it will still take some time before the tourism resources here are better developed.

For instance, villagers haven't begun to take advantage of the unique nostalgic, rural and outdoor appeal of the village, nor provided activities for tourists to stay, learn, and experience rural life patterns as a source of income.

A visitor center is soon to be constructed by the provincial transportation department, which will provide tourists with catering and accommodation services.

The department also plans to build a boat house cultural brand by establishing country inns, Li people gourmet restaurants, handicraft shops and forming Li people singing and dancing teams in Baicha Village.