XI'AN, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Zheng Wencai decided to go back to the village of Qinling for one last time.
Zheng, 65, is a resident of Huyi District in the city of Xi'an, capital of northwest China's Shaanxi Province. He is a beekeeper by profession.
Zheng relocated to downtown Xi'an from the village of Qinling, which is tucked away in the boundless Qinling Mountains, years ago. But he still frequently goes back because the "good mountains and good water" are perfect for beekeeping, he says.
"I spent my life depending on the mountains, so of course I am attached to the village there," he says.
The village of Qinling has a long history. A local saying indicates that during the Tang Dynasty (618-907), a royal rebel settled in the village's vicinity. It was a perfect hideout then, but for the generations to come, the village also meant endless, grinding poverty.
Zheng came to the village in 1971 and settled there.
"I moved there from another poor area when I was 16, and I was looking forward to a better life," Zheng says. But at an altitude of more than 1,300 meters above sea level, the village offers little arable farmland, and potatoes and corn were the only crops able to survive there.
"Life was as hard as it was before," he says.
In those days, Zheng needed to walk more than 20 km over valleys and trails, and over more than 70 streams to reach the nearest town to buy food and daily necessities.
"It took two to three days for a trip to the town and back," he recalls.
In the winter of 1990, his wife died of an illness, leaving behind Zheng and their baby daughter.
"I couldn't find a doctor in the mountains and could only watch her die," he says. "It was just painful."
Schooling also proved to be a problem.
In the 1970s, a fire engulfed the village school, and it was not until the end of the 1980s that locals built another one. It was made of mud and wood planks. There was only one teacher, one classroom, and students of different grades crammed the room to study.
But all this was set to change.
In the mid-1980s, China launched a large-scale poverty alleviation campaign, and Chinese localities began exploring relocation to help people cast off poverty.
In 1997, a group of county officials visited the village and stayed overnight, informing locals about relocation.
"People were just so excited to hear that they could finally move out," recalls villager Zhang Baode. "Everyone was singing and dancing."
The provincial government later allocated subsidies for the relocation program.
By the year 2000, the 10 families in the village had moved out and settled in urban areas. In 2006, the county government annulled the village of Qinling.
But even after relocation, Zheng Wencai still goes back to the site of the bygone village at the beginning of each summer to take care of his bees. He says he is not afraid to live in the mountains alone.
"I am quite used to it," he says.
In 2013, the government allocated 8,000 yuan (1,130 U.S. dollars) to his family to help them get rid of poverty.
In 2015, Zheng's second wife, who was previously paralyzed, gradually recovered and learned to take care of herself, and Zheng's bee business also made progress thanks to governmental help. The family bid farewell to poverty that year.
According to official figures, the province relocated more than 900,000 families in the past 10 years, decreasing the poverty rate from more than 20 percent to 0.75 percent.
These days, the bygone village of Qinling is a part of the Qinling National Botanical Garden, hidden in the great Qinling Mountains, a natural boundary between China's north and south.
By September this year, Zheng's grandson will turn three years old and will go to a local kindergarten, about 1 km from their new home in Xi'an. Zheng says he will say goodbye to his beekeeping business in the former site of the village, and take on the new mission of taking care of his grandson.
"This could be the last time I visit the village," he says. "I am looking forward to a new life." Enditem
