Chinese President Xi Jinping inspected Northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region on Monday.

President Xi Jinping waves at villagers as he visits Hongde Village in Wuzhong, Northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, June 8, 2020. (Photo: Xinhua)

Xi chose the autonomous region for his sixth domestic trip outside Beijing this year and his very first domestic visit since the annual“two sessions”— the National People's Congress (NPC) and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) — that ended in Beijing last month.

On Monday afternoon, Xi visited the village of Hongde in the city of Wuzhong to learn about efforts to advance poverty alleviation. Through farming and animal husbandry, the 7,013 residents of Hongde last year officially rid themselves of extreme poverty.

Hongsibu, an ancient garrison town 130 kilometers south of the region's capital Yinchuan, is home to the Hongsibu Development Zone Poverty Reduction Project, which pumps water from the Yellow River.

A local irrigation project for poverty alleviation. (Photo: CCTV News)

Some 233,000 people were relocated at the end of last century from arid mountainous areas in the south and have used the pumped water to irrigate and cultivate more than 47,000 hectares (700,000 mu) of land, ridding themselves of water shortages and poverty.

Specialist agriculture, focused on alfalfa and corn, has improved life in Hongde, and alongside the setting up of cardboard packaging workshops, the villagers today can reportedly earn 8,000 yuan ($1,130) a year.

A view of Hongde village, Wuzhong, Northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. (Photo: CCTV News)

This was President Xi's fourth visit to the region, having focused much of his attention on poverty alleviation in Ningxia.

As deputy secretary of CPC Fujian Provincial Committee, Xi first visited Ningxia in 1997 to offer pairing-up support and so helped change the fate of countless underprivileged families.

Xi visited Ningxia again in 2008 and 2016. Now in 2020, the crucial year for the official completion of “building a moderately prosperous society in all respects,” Xi went to Ningxia once more to learn about local efforts.

A group photo of Liu Kerui (center)'s family in their new house in Hongde village, Wuzhong, Northwest China’s Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. (Photo: CCTV News)

In Hongde village, Xi visited the villager Liu Kerui's family. The 47-year-old Liu Kerui suffered from his right leg injury due to a car accident five years ago and has not yet fully recovered. Now he is working in the village to take care of the reservoir. Dominated by farming and working income, his family lifted out of poverty in 2017.

(Compiled by Chen Tianxin; source: CCTV News)