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And this is Story in the Story.

At this year’s annual two sessions, Premier Li Keqiang met with senior deputies from Guizhou Province and called for efforts to deepen reform and opening up, improve business environments, unleash the vitality of state-owned and private enterprises, and strengthen the real economy to promote stable and healthy economic development.

In Guizhou Province’s Zheng’an County, guitar manufacturing has helped lift over 6,000 people in almost 1,300 households out of poverty, and by October 2018, one factory alone had created more than 13,000 jobs.

In 2017, the county produced and sold 6 million guitars worth almost $900 million, exporting to more than 30 countries and regions around the world.

The local government estimates that production will reach 10 million by 2020, with an output valued at $100 million.

In 2018, Guizhou County was responsible for one-third of China's guitar exports. 

Today's Story in the Story looks at guitar-making and how one province in Southern China has grown to become a respected world-wide manufacturer of the six-stringed instrument.

Zheng Chuanjiu checks an employee's work at a Zunyi Shenqu Musical Instruments Manufacturing workshop in Zheng'an county, Guizhou province. (Photo: China Daily) 

Zheng Chuanjiu and his brother left their hometown in Zheng’an County, Guizhou Province in 1995 to work at a guitar manufacturing facility in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province.

In 2013, Zheng returned to his hometown and established the county’s first guitar factory.

Zheng, the 41-year-old general manager of Zunyi Shenqu Musical Instruments Manufacturing, was elected a deputy to the 13th National People's Congress, China's top legislative body, last year.

This year he will propose making the county's guitar industrial park a national cultural industry demonstration park so the local guitar business can benefit even more from central policies.

Zheng will also propose that three counties in Guizhou - Wuchuan, Zheng'an, Daozhen - be incorporated into the nearby Chongqing economic zone so they can connect to the railways and improve the transportation of goods.

"Wuchuan, Zheng'an and Daozhen are all poverty-stricken areas in Guizhou, and I think a large reason for that is because of the inconvenient transportation," Zheng said. "Although they have been connected to highways, they still lack a railway. I hope high-speed transportation routes can be built in the mountains."

Though Zheng has long been familiar with the 186 steps required to make a guitar, he did not know how to play the six-string instrument. During the NPC meeting last year, he set himself the goal of learning how to play the guitar at this year's congress.

When Zheng and his brother worked at the guitar factory in Guangzhou, they were promoted to management positions within a short period of time.

Zhao Leji, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and secretary of the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, is seen with deputies from Guizhou province at the second session of the 13th National People's Congress in Beijing, China, March 9, 2019. (Photo: XINHUA)

It wasn’t long afterward when the brothers started a guitar manufacturing business in Guangzhou. Several years later they moved the company to their hometown to boost the local economy. 

With encouragement from the Zheng brothers, along with advantageous policies, more skilled musical instrument makers from Zheng'an began returning to their hometown. As a result, an industrial park was created and is home to 54 guitar-related enterprises.

"At first, people could hardly believe that guitars played by world-renowned artists were made by a group of farmers living deep in the mountains," Zheng said, adding that it is their hard working spirit that creates such professionalism.

Zheng's company is now the supplier for six of the top 10 guitar brands in the world, including Tagima and Ibanez.

However, Zheng wants to build an original brand that can make Zheng'an guitars known to the world.

"We are no longer satisfied with guitar manufacturing, so we've created our own brand," he said. Their independently developed Bessica guitar is already in production and was unveiled at the 2017 Music China Exhibition in Shanghai.

Plans are underway is to establish the world's largest guitar museum and a high-end concert hall, according to Wu Qi, the head of Zheng'an County.

"We will transform and upgrade the guitar industry from being an original equipment manufacturer to creators of independent brands, as well as elevate low-end products to medium-and high-end ones," Wu said.

(Produced by Nancy Yan Xu, Lance Crayon, Brian Lowe, and Chelle Wenqian Zeng. Music by: bensound.com. Text from China Daily.)