Party delegate leads Miao people in Hunan to create a better life

Shi Jintong, a delegate to the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, is town mayor of Shuanglong Town, Party chief and head of Shibadong Village in Huayuan County of Hunan Province.

Under his leadership, Shibadong, a Miao village, has taken the lead in shaking off poverty in Huayuan and the amount of its collective economy has surged from nearly zero to over 2 million yuan ($278,000) over the past decade. In addition, the per capita disposable income of local residents has surpassed 20,000 yuan. During the seven-day National Day holiday, a large number of tourists came to Shibadong to appreciate its natural scenery and tremendous changes over the past decades.

Speaking in an interview, Shi said that people had to walk for several hours when they wanted to attend celebration activities for the Ganqiu Festival, a traditional Miao festival celebrating the approach of autumn, in the past and that there used to be no electricity at night at Shibadong.

Shi, who was a town-level official and head of Shibadong in 2013, made up his mind to lead local people on a path to a prosperous life. Since then, he has united and led them to further improve infrastructure building, promote the construction of a kiwi fruit plantation base and spring water plant, and accelerate the development of rural tourism.

Thanks to his efforts, Shibadong became one of the first villages in Huayuan to get rid of poverty in February 2017.

Right now, the automatic production line of spring water has annually created about 600,000 yuan for the collective economy at Shibadong. The village has built five leading industrial sectors and driven the collaborative development of 26 surrounding villages.

In addition, Shi has worked with other village officials to launch an incentive mechanism for local residents to take part in self-governance and strengthen their ideological and moral building.

Statistics show that the per capita disposable income of local residents grew from 1,668 yuan in 2013 to 20,167 yuan in 2021 and that its collective economy hit 2.68 million yuan in 2021.

Apart from winning a national honor of outstanding Party member, Shi received an award on behalf of Shibadong at the national conference on poverty alleviation in Beijing on February 25, 2021.

Shi said that a leading rural complex is scheduled to be completed at Shibadong this year and that it has intensified its efforts to develop oil-tea and forestry-related business and register a cultural enterprise in a drive to forge new growth engines.