Many outside of China have been asking: How did China manage to lift hundreds of millions out of extreme poverty? At this year's Two Sessions, CGTN's Li Jingjing met three National People's Congress deputies from villages in southwest China's Yunnan Province. Their stories tell you everything.

One is a teacher who spent 40 years alone in a village that once housed many leprosy patients. He helped 126 children get an education and see the world outside of the isolated mountains. One is a young entrepreneur who led his fellow villagers to turn pig farming into a modern industry, earning much more income than before. One is a village Party secretary, known among villagers as the leader to solve their long-standing water shortage.

They are ordinary people rooted at the grassroots. And there are millions like them, quietly and persistently improving the realities of rural China, one day at a time.