Journey from uninhabitable mountain hamlet to relishing prosperity

YINCHUAN -- Li Shizhong, 58, a farmer from northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region is enamored of rainy days as such weather inspires his writings on bitter, sweet experiences of life.

"When I was living in Xihaigu, I used to yearn for rain. Cloud-shrouded skies would make us happy, and a gust of wind blowing it away disappointed us," said Li, who now lives in the region's Hongsipu District.

Deemed as "one of the most unfit places for human settlement" by the United Nations in the 1970s, Xihaigu suffered land reclamation, drought, and a fragile ecological environment.

Hongsipu District, once part of the Gobi Desert, has now become one of China's largest settlement areas for people relocated from Xihaigu, with a population of about 230,000.

Li used to live in a mountainous hamlet in Xiji, a county in Xihaigu. Though his family used to own land about the size of two football fields, the wheat they fed on may wither before the harvest season due to drought.

They could not raise cattle or sheep as the water they fetched from a small spring by climbing mountains was not even enough for them to drink.

"We were at the mercy of rain," Li said, recalling that the rain made everyone happy, even though their mud-brick houses weren't reliable on rainy days.

Education used to be a luxury in Xihaigu. Supported by his uncle, Li completed senior high school, which was rare in his village, but was compelled to give up education due to financial hardships.

"My parents had no money to support me, so I decided to take up farming and help them," he said. Since then, he had not penned anything until 2015 when he bought a new smartphone and wrote online, sitting at his new home in Hongsipu.

Li said his eagerness for writing was triggered by the carefree life which was unimaginable in the past.

Decades ago, Li used to drive tractors to Lanzhou, capital of the neighboring Gansu Province, with several villagers to purchase wholesale low-priced daily necessities and then sell them in his village.

"The entire village depended on me to buy what they needed," said Li. "But nowadays, shops are ubiquitous in every village, and more and more people shop online."

In the past, one square km of land in Xihaigu could support 22 people at a push. However, nearly 142 people were attempting to eke out a life on those parcels of land, with their living conditions further marred by poverty and the area's ecological fragility.

Things, however, started to change in the 1980s when a large-scale relocation project was pioneered in Xihaigu. More than 350,000 people were relocated to places with better living conditions, with the Yellow River being a major water source.

Hongsipu is one such relocation destination. It used to be a wasteland, but through pump stations and pipelines, water from the Yellow River was raised up by 300 meters to nourish the land.

"All plants can grow well with water, and we can decide our own fate here," Li said.

Advancing with a pioneering spirit, the settlers planted trees and crops and built infrastructures, making Hongsipu their new home.

They also began to grow industrial crops such as goji berries, which brought them higher income with the prevalence of cold-chain logistics. Besides, fast transportation made it easy for them to go out and do part-time jobs.

Li often revisits his hometown. "The barren land is green everywhere, especially in summer," he said, adding that villagers there now live in beautiful houses with running water and backyards for raising domestic animals.

As machines are now widely used in China's agriculture sector, Li has more time for himself. He enjoys drinking tea, growing flowers, reading, watching TV, and tending to fruit trees in the courtyard of his house -- just like an urban Chinese retiree.

Li has chronicled the great change in Hongsipu over the past two decades in the form of poems, essays and stories. Some of his writings include -- Goji trees sweeten villagers' lives; Kungfu gym gets popular among village children; rural tourism gets hot; farmers kidnapped by land now become hotel managers...

Dozens of Li's works have gained traction online, and he has become a member of the local literary federation. Most of his time is now spent on writing and replying to his fans' reviews.

"I feel I am a freelancer now," said the old farmer.