In 1969, a teenager from Beijing joined 17 million Chinese students in the "Down to the Countryside Movement," a campaign launched by Chairman Mao Zedong that asked urban youth to experience life by working in rural areas.
He traveled to a desolate village on the Loess Plateau in northwest China, and spent seven years living among its soft-dirt mountains and in its simple caves.
His name is Xi Jinping.
Liangjiahe, a then barren mountain village in Shaanxi Province, is now a prosperous place with modern agriculture and a booming tourism industry.
Photo taken on December 24, 2016, shows the cave dwelling Xi Jinping lived in during his days in Liangjiahe Village, Yanchuan County in Yan'an City, northwest China's Shaanxi Province. /Xinhua
'Have meat and have it often'
Back then, life was harsh in Liangjiahe.
Xi lived in caves alongside the villagers and slept on a bed made of bricks and clay.
"People lived in poverty. They often went months without meat. What I wanted to do the most was to make it possible for the villagers not just to have meat sometimes, but to often have meat on their plates," said Xi, who is now Chinese president, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission.
Xi Jinping participates in farm work in Liangjiahe Village, Yanchuan County in Yan'an City, northwest China's Shaanxi Province. /Xinhua
After Xi became Party secretary of Liangjiahe Village in January 1974, he led villagers in a series of projects.
"These included the 'Educated Youth Dam,' the 'Educated Youth Well' – which remains the source of our tap water today – and later the iron mill, the supplies and sales office, the grain mill and the sewing workshop. These were only some of the good deeds he performed when he was Party secretary of Liangjiahe," recalled Shi Chunyang, former secretary of the CPC branch of Liangjiahe Village.
Xi decided that his top priority for the villagers would be food. He proposed improving the local soil conditions by building a dam, which would transform a large area of arid land into productive fields and improve crop yields.
Xi Jinping visits the cave dwelling he lived in during his days in Liangjiahe Village, Yanchuan County in Yan'an City, northwest China's Shaanxi Province, February 13, 2015. /Xinhua
A microcosm
Xi's plan to bring meat to villagers' tables has since come to fruition.
"In 1975, we saw some good results of the dam," Shi said. "Firstly, the river bed could be used for farmland. Secondly, soil conditions improved, increasing yields from 1,500 kg per hectare to about 7,500 kg."
Building on those foundations, Liangjiahe was gradually transformed over the following decades.
It has developed over 60 hectares of orchards on the mountains. It introduced photovoltaic facilities, developed aquaculture in the river and built vegetable greenhouses – and now tourism development is the focus of the village.
Aerial photo taken on July 29, 2020, shows a road winding through Liangjiahe Village, Yanchuan County in Yan'an City, northwest China's Shaanxi Province. /Xinhua
Liangjiahe's annual income per capita of about 9,600 yuan ($1,478) in 2014 rose to 21,634 yuan ($3,335) in 2019.
There used to be 14 poverty-stricken households comprising 44 people in Liangjiahe, but it shook off poverty in 2018, according to Gong Baoxiong, secretary of the CPC branch of the village.
In a 2015 speech in the U.S. city of Seattle, Xi hailed Liangjiahe's progress as a microcosm of China's economic and social development since reform and opening-up began in 1978.
Today, thousands come to the village to see the humble and harsh lifestyle that helped shape President Xi and to better understand his fervent fight against poverty.