For the small, impoverished county of Fuping in the northern province of Hebei, an inspection tour by Xi Jinping in late 2012 was a game changer.

"It was a cold, chilly day, with snow everywhere, but the memory of it burns even today," Tang Rongbin, a 72-year-old farmer from the village of Luotuozhuang in Fuping, recalled.

Xi, who at the time was the newly-elected general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, arrived with relief materials such as cooking oil, flour, quilts and winter coats, which the villagers gladly accepted.

But Tang said Xi's visit was more of one of belief than of relief.

"[Xi] came to my house, sat down and we talked like neighbors," Tang said.

"He said we could turn dust to gold so long as we have confidence," he said.

Only about three hour's drive from Beijing, Fuping has stood economically isolated for years. While the rest of the country was rushing headlong to riches during its nearly four decades of economic reforms and breakneck growth, life in Fuping remained, mostly, flat.

The county has been under the national poverty alleviation plan since 1994. At one point, two in five Fuping residents were living under the poverty line of 2,300 yuan (about 354 U.S. dollars) in annual income.

In 2012, the per capita net income of Luotuozhuang village residents was just short of 1,000 yuan. Nationwide, the per capita net income of rural residents that year was about seven times as much.

Even today, nearly 30 percent of the county's 200,000 residents live on less than one dollar a day.

Xi's 2012 visit, however, gave the county hope that it would find its way off the poverty list after all, as an influx of funds followed the Chinese leader's visit.

Roughly 300 million yuan was allocated to support Fuping's poverty alleviation work in 2013 alone -- almost 1.5 times as much as the county had received over the previous two decades.

The financial injection seemed to have worked a spell. By 2015, per capita income of Luotuozhuang residents had tripled from 2012 levels to nearly 3,000 yuan.

"Our aim now is to lift all residents above the poverty line by 2017," said Luotuozhuang village chief Zhang Fengzhong.

In retrospect, Zhang told Xinhua that the local officials were quite nervous about Xi's Luotuozhuang visit.

Li Ningtai, Fuping Party secretary, was one of them. "We were concerned -- what if the general secretary is not satisfied 

Source : XINHUA