RURAL RISING

We must “let some get rich first,” Deng Xiaoping famously stated, summarizing a development strategy that has turbocharged China’s urbanization for decades.As emerging megacities drained the countryside of working-aged people,China gave rise to the second most billionaires in the world, all the while leaving behind 600 million in rural areas who live on less than 1,000 RMB (150 USD) a month.

Now, China’s leaders are promising a great recalibration: President Xi Jinping declared in 2014 that China would invest hundreds of billions of RMB into the countryside to eradicate extreme poverty by the end of 2020, at the pace of one million people per month.

On the eve of Xi’s audacious deadline,we go on the road in Jilin, Zhejiang,and Sichuan provinces to witness onthe-ground efforts to inject new life into declining villages. Some residents experiment with new methods of income—such as livestreaming and tourism—while others bring back rural cooperatives. As remote corners are connected to roads and internet, and college graduates forego the city grind to pursue more bucolic dreams,China’s countryside seeks a second life.So how far away is that “rich and rural”country life?

扶貧四十多年來，中國農村發生了翻天覆地的變化。

走進四川涼山“懸崖村”、浙江溫嶺“彩虹村”和吉林延邊州，看網紅直播、旅游農業、新型農村合作社和越來越多選擇回鄉創業的年輕人如何改變了當地人的生活