Weixiang Village Pursues Development with Utter Sincerity, Dedicating True Feelings to the Countryside

--A Profile of Bai Jiyue, Party Branch Secretary of Xujiabao Village, Fengyu Township, Datong County

Now in his sixties, Bai Jiyue is the Party branch secretary of Xujiabao Village, Fengyu Township, Datong County. For more than 10 years, with a loyal heart for the Party, he has taken root in the countryside and actually turned a formerly dirt-poor village into a provincial-level "one village, one product" demonstration village.

In the photo, Bai Jiyue (center) guides college student volunteers in picking daylily buds

Before 2004, Xujiabao Village was one of the handful of poorest villages in Datong County. The collective economy had no source of income, and external debt reached 130,000 yuan. On sunny days, one was covered in dust; on rainy days, one was covered in mud; there was no irrigated land, and farming relied on cattle and plows; the village committee changed frequently, and there were several batches of petitioners. This was a true portrayal of the village at that time. Under these circumstances, after deliberation by the villagers and selection by Party members, Bai Jiyue, who worked elsewhere, was pushed to the forefront. Facing opposition from his parents, wife, and children, and facing the pressure of lifting the whole village out of poverty, Bai Jiyue did not shrink back, and he decided that he must do a good job and not let down the organization's trust and the people's heavy expectations.

"Where is the problem that keeps Xujiabao Village from doing well?" This was the question Bai Jiyue kept thinking about after taking office. Through exchanges with members of the village "two committees" and communication with villagers, he found the crux of the problem. After taking office, he first convened a meeting of the village Party branch to analyze the existing problems, discuss solutions, and clarify the direction of future work, and formulated the first five-year plan suited to the village's actual conditions. The villagers' meeting held afterward announced the five-year plan and also made a commitment to strive by all means to put the plan into practice during his term and never let down the expectations of all the villagers.

The plan was set, but where would the money come from? After careful consideration, Bai Jiyue decided to ask officials and entrepreneurs working elsewhere to offer ideas and suggestions for their hometown's development. So he led village cadres to various places and visited successful hometown people working away one by one. In order to save every cent, they ate instant noodles, stayed in stations, and took public buses. Their spirit of enduring hardship moved many people, and everyone generously donated money, quickly raising more than 10,000 yuan in cash. After returning to the village, he immediately convened a meeting of villagers' representatives, asking everyone to collectively study where the work should begin and to try to spend the limited money where it was most needed. Building infrastructure, repairing roads, and just like that, he led all the village cadres and people in vigorous work. When problems arose, they studied them collectively; when difficulties arose, they overcame and solved them. After several years, not only had the village's appearance changed tremendously, but the hearts of all the village cadres and people had also been drawn together.

Xujiabao Village has 1,000 mu of cultivated land, but not a single motor-pumped well. It was all dry land, and the common people depended on the weather for their food, with a per capita annual net income of less than 1,000 yuan. How to adjust the industrial structure and promote increases in farmers' income became another urgent problem facing Bai Jiyue. To change production, there had to first be water. For this reason, he repeatedly sought out the main leaders of the municipal and county water affairs departments, explained the village's actual situation, and requested their support and favorable treatment. When the leaders of the water affairs departments saw how hard he worked and ran around for the village's development, they were all deeply moved. They successively allocated a total of 100,000 yuan in special water conservancy funds, dug 2 new deep wells, and added 500 mu of irrigated land, completely changing the village's history of having no irrigated land. At the same time, after repeated study with the leadership team, he determined that developing daylily would be the village's leading industry, and through various methods such as Party members and cadres taking the lead, exchanging land, and encouraging land transfer, he fully mobilized the whole village's enthusiasm for planting daylily. From 2010 to 2012, the whole village planted 460 mu of daylily over three years, of which more than 200 mu entered the full production period. Its returns accounted for more than 65% of the village's total economic income and became the pillar industry of the village economy. By 2011, the village's annual per capita net income reached 5,000 yuan, an increase of 4,000 yuan per capita compared with 2004. The village became beautiful, people's hearts were at ease, farmers' pockets bulged, and confidence in development was even greater. Under Bai Jiyue's leadership, the excellent situation of new socialist countryside construction in Xujiabao Village was thus opened up.