Ludovic Ehret

Stay informed with Ludovic Ehret’s coverage and analysis for Fortune.

Tan Huihua L, father of Tan Xianzhen, and his wife Tan Huailiu shop for a watermelon at a supermarket in Huanjiang Maonan Autonomous County, south China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Aug. 28, 2024. Tan Xianzhen and her family used to live in a mountainous hamlet in Xianan Township of Huanjiang County, where most of the residents are people of the Maonan ethnic group. Due to the harsh conditions, residents there had long been in poverty. “In the village, there were no paved roads, so children had to get up at 5 every morning to walk to their school.” Tan recalled. Her family was registered as poor household in 2015. In the following years, the local government carried out a variety of measures to help locals fight poverty, including a relocation program. Tan’s family was among the 8,200-plus people who moved to the relocation site in the county seat of Huanjiang in 2019. Tan and her family currently live in a house of 100 square meters. A bustling urban lifestyle has become commonplace in and around the relocation area, where workshops, markets, schools and care centers have been established. Huanjiang county was removed from the country’s list of impoverished counties in May 2020. Life of Tan family is getting better and better after they moved to the relocation site. Now working as a staff member in the county-level public complaints and proposals bureau, Tan also provides voluntary help for relocated residents in her spare time. Her sister, who was graduated from Guangxi Medical University this year, is receiving trains in the neurology department of Hechi People’s Hospital. Her mother works in a school canteen and her father is responsible for household chores. “A prosperous and colorful life is ahead for us,” Tan said. (Photo by Jin Haoyuan/Xinhua via Getty Images)

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By Ludovic Ehret and AFP