1.basic information
youyu of shuozhou city, shanxi province, sits on the border between shanxi and inner mongolia. its territory of 1,969 square kilometers includes 58,000 hectares of farmland, and its green coverage stands at 54 percent. under its jurisdiction are four towns, six townships, 288 administrative villages, and one scenic resort area. it has a population of 114,000, with 81,300, or 71.3 percent, being rural residents. youyu is one of the 36 national-level impoverished counties in shanxi and the only of the kind in shuozhou. a total of 129 villages and 16,337 people of 8,035 households in the region were identified as poor-off. by the end of 2017, 126 villages and 15,918 people of 7,778 households had climbed above the poverty line, bringing down the poverty headcount ratio from 18 percent to 0.46 percent.
in 2017, youyu applied to be removed from the impoverished regions list, and has passed the assessment by the provincial authority. it is waiting for further review by the state council.
2.poverty alleviation efforts in recent years
the group鈥檚 poverty alleviation program in youyu is undertaken by china longyuan power technology developing corporation in partnership with gd power development co., ltd. and guodian鈥檚 north china branch. two personnel from the companies work temporarily in the county as deputy county magistrate and village party secretary.
under this program, an eco-preservation fund was established to hire 186 rangers to manage and oversee 17,333 hectares of forests in the region, and two online platforms were launched to sell local produce. what鈥檚 more, a 1.41-mw photovoltaic power station was built with a donation of 10 million yuan, which entered operation in june 2018.
