Original subtitles

Our typical daily life becomes a luxury

when compared with the way of life here.

Once separated by a cliff standing 1,000 metres high,

the Cliff Village of Sichuan's Liangshan Prefecture

has been sealed off from the world for over a century.

The only thing they had on the mountain was absolute poverty.

Yet since the government installed steel ladders and an optical fiber network,

everything changed.

The rattan ladders became steel ladders.

We never imagined it could happen.

And when the steel ladders were up, we thought:

"Wow! It's like a highway."

After the steel ladders were built and 4G came,

this secluded village got connected with the world.

You became connected.

Yes, linked together.

Many people in the village are using smartphones.

Young people are making short videos and doing live streaming.

They're not good with Putonghua. They didn't read.

They didn't know how to respond.

Gradually, after live streaming, they started to pick up words.

Cities have made huge progress

but as long as the villagers stayed on the mountain,

not only would the cost for poverty-alleviation remain high,

but the disparity between the urban rich and the rural poor

would also get more serious.

To solve the problem of generational poverty once and for all,

the government decided to embark on a massive project.

In May 2020,

came the big day of relocation for the whole Cliff Village.

It was their "Great move off of the Cliff" day.

The Cliff Flying Man Mouse Labo

is taking his family down the steel ladders

for their new life ahead.

His mom and dad haven't been down the mountain for five years.

My father was especially happy. I was happy too,

because we got to move to town.

We didn't know what the new place was going to be like.

When we arrived at the estate...

Wow! We were stunned! This beautiful place...

Is it really ours?

It's like a dream.

We've never even dreamt of that,

because we'd never seen anything like that before.

After 3 to 4 years work,

the government completed construction of 1,400 resettlement estates across Liangshan,

at places close to town,

or where transportation is convenient,

helping over 2,000 impoverished villages -

a total of 350,000 villagers relocate.

Blocks of modern apartment complexes, complete with community,

medical and cultural facilities, schools,

and transportation networks,

everything was newly constructed for the villagers.

The government allocated the flats according to family size.

It's at least over a hundred square feet per person.

A family of four would get a unit of over 500 sq.ft.

We've been to the Cliff Village and we've seen how they used to live.

Now let's visit Labo in his new home.

Labo!

- Hello, everyone! - Hello!

Welcome to my new house!

- My place is up ahead. - It's right there?

Here we are. My place is on the 4th floor.

The 4th. No need to climb the Ladders of Heaven anymore.

Right. Just these stairs now.

The staircase instead of Ladders of Heaven. Just 4 flights of stairs.

Oh dear... This is your son?

Yes. And my second one.

Second one? Another one.

My youngest child.

This is my wife. My mom and pop.

Hello. So you're a family of seven.

Yes, seven. My eldest daughter is at nursery school.

Labo was born and bred in the Cliff Village.

All his brothers and sisters are working in the city.

He's the youngest, so it's his duty to take care of their parents.

Before, the family lived on the farm on the mountain.

They'd grow their own food, and basically, they had no income.

And they lived in a worn out clay house.

This home is totally different now.

That's right.

Up in the mountain, the bedroom and the living room were one room.

This is the living room as well as where you sleep?

Now, you see, this is the living room...

Here's the living room... And there's a bedroom.

Is this your room? The master bedroom...

Yes.

And another room... It's for whom?

My mom and pa.

For mom and papa? It's so neat and tidy!

The bathroom.

Now we have this toilet... where we can take a shower.

There were no bathrooms up the mountain!

And... here's a guest room.

- For whom? - For guests.

Guests? Even a room for guests too!

See how nice the kitchen is.

That's right! I remember your kitchen up the mountain.

It's totally different! It was so primitive back then.

Now you have these appliances.

Yes. All modernised.

A flat in Zhaojue County can cost you around 400,000 to 600,000 yuan.

But we paid just 10,000 yuan and got it from the government.

And not only that. There's furniture.

The table, sofa, television set, and beds. A set of five pieces.

All given by the government.

- How much space... - 100 square metres.

100 square metres is about 1,000 sq.ft.

We've lived here for a while

and still I can't believe this is ours.

It's unbelievable, indeed! Yes.

What a huge contrast with that place on the mountain.

Where were these babies born?

On the mountain. She was born here.

How did you do it... you carried him when you moved?

He didn't want to be carried. He wanted to climb by himself.

Wow! It's true! Look, this is you.

He was just over one year old!

Yes.

The second child was born the day we climbed down.

It's really hard to climb when you're pregnant.

And this youngest child... We're sitting right here.

The hospital was nearby when it was time.

Just next door. It's so convenient.

So mom and pa, do you like it here?

How can we not like it?

I was worried before.

Some old people didn't want to move.

They're used to life in the village.

Many of the seniors had never been to town.

Right.

They didn't know what it's like here.

Then when you actually came,

you knew this is how our seniors should live.

Mom and pop are so old now.

They'd never even had a body check before.

Even when they were ill, if it's not too serious,

they wouldn't come down from the mountain.

Only when they were really sick

or when they were dying would they be carried down.

Back then it was dangerous enough for you to climb those rattan ladders on your own,

not to mention carrying someone on your back too.

But here, the hospital is just a short walk away.

They could easily have their bodies checked.

Moving down the mountain... besides better living for the family,

the most important thing for Labo is...

his children won't have to risk their lives

climbing the cliff to go to school like he did as a child.

I can see she's very happy, and you too.

The kids can go to school when they're so small.

Yes. Back then we had to climb the cliff

and walk a whole day to get to school.

Now it takes less than two minutes to get to school.

This nursery school... I've been to many places.

This one is the biggest I've seen.

Right?

Under the new measures, at every resettlement point

they have facilities like kindergartens, primary and secondary schools.

As stipulated by law, all children aged between 6 and 15

are to receive free compulsory education.

And for the poor, kindergarten is free too.

Back then, young villagers like Labo

would only get to go to school for the first time in their teens.

And very soon, they'd have to quit school to work for a living.

If the living environment was so nice when we were small,

life should have been so much better!

You would have been even smarter today,

with even better development, right?

Back when we graduated from primary school

we could only write our own names.

You could only write your name when you graduated from primary school?

We didn't know anything about Mandarin.

Now she speaks Mandarin as well as the Yi language.

She speaks more Mandarin than the Yi language.

A huge difference.

Now our children can go to kindergarten.

Back then we'd never even heard of kindergarten.

We only had primary school.

When they grow up, they'll be our hope.

They're going to live better than we did.

The Poverty Alleviation Relocation Project

is one of the few large-scale relocation projects in human history.

The government plans to relocate

all of the people from extremely remote areas

of the country in 5 years - a total of 10 million people

But to do it in such a short time...

like relocating the whole population of a small country...

who pays for it? And where to move them?

What about their livelihoods afterwards?

After eight years of hard work,

more than one million residents of the Liangshan prefecture got out of poverty,

1,468 relocation settlement posts like this are built,

moving 350,000 people out from the remote area.

Brother Youge!

Hello, hello, Pui-yee! Welcome!

Thank you. So this is the resettlement estate for the villagers?

Yes. This is one of the resettlement communities we have in Zhaojue County.

Pacha Youge is the secretary for poverty alleviation

sent from the Liangshan Prefecture Government to the Cliff Village.

Since 2012,

the government has sent 3 million elite members of the civil service,

and young people with high education to be stationed in villages

for poverty-relief work.

They are here to help the villagers rewrite their destiny.

Hello.

What is this?

Spinning wool.

So they make their clothes this way?

Yes.

Wow! That's awesome.

When the government first decided to relocate the villagers,

some seniors resisted the idea.

So officials like Youge went from door to door to explain to them

that there were other ways to lead a happy life.

How are you adapting to this life?

She said "Very well. Very well."

How long have you been here?

Almost eight months.

She said the old villagers needed not stay there to work on the farm.

The young ones can go out for work

and come home to take care of them.

Is it back when they were up the mountain,

their sons... the young ones had to go to work in the city

and they were left on their own with no one to take care of them?

But it's different now. They can live together.

First it's easier to go out to work,

and then she doesn't need to keep going up and down.

Life is much more peaceful and easy.

It's wonderful. The family can live together.

She can sew clothes at her leisure.

Now you're happy, right?

Since 2016, the government and various sources of funding

have together invested over 600 billion yuan,

building 2.66 million resettlement homes country-wide,

and helped relocate 10 million poverty-stricken people.

All these resettlement areas are well served with fresh water supply, electricity, gas,

and other facilities.

The relocation of these 10 million people meant the problem of poverty in China -

where "the local environment isn't able to support its inhabitants" -

this core problem has been solved.

These villagers would do some farming on the mountain.

Now that they've moved here, how do they make a living?

They have to be relocated and given security.

Around the five local communities there are agricultural parks

targeting farmers in the county,

where the locals can be grouped together for work.

Their income is very stable, too,

given the government's policy of guaranteed support

such as Minimum Living Security,

senior health and life insurance.

Youge told me after the relocation, the villagers must be given security.

So how do they make money when they have no farm works?

This modern agricultural park in Zhaojue County

occupies an area of 5,000 mu.

That's equivalent to the size of over 400 football fields.

It was built by a mainland enterprise

with the aim of helping the relocated farmers.

Mr Zhao, I understand that this modern agricultural park

is a project for poverty-alleviation.

This project was spearheaded by the government in 2018.

Investments were made by enterprises so that residents could take part in it.

The farmers can choose to work here for a salary

or take part in the cultivation work.

The company provides them with training on technical skills.

Once their produce reaches the company's standard for export,

it'll be contracted for sales.

Over the past 3 years since the park was set up,

they have created job opportunities for almost 1,000 relocated families.

This vegetable field is huge!

Where do you sell these vegetables?

Mainly to Shenzhen, and to Hong Kong as well.

- Hong Kong too? - Yes.

So the choi sum we eat could have been picked by these aunties

relocated from the mountain.

Before this base was set up,

the older farmers only knew about growing potatoes and corn -

produce that couldn't sell for much.

Their ways of cultivation were rather primitive too.

Not so scientific, like, with ridging and fertilising.

After planting, they'd leave it up to nature.

The rate of marketable farm produce was low.

For one mu, they might get just a few hundred or 1,000 yuan.

Now with planting choi sum, for one mu of land,

they can make tens of thousands a year.

That's a huge difference.

Yes. Compared to traditional farming,

that's dozens of times more.

In recent years, the government and the enterprises

are systematically helping the farmers

develop their industries with local characteristics.

Now, for the 832 impoverished counties,

poverty-alleviation programmes with local characteristics have been launched.

With over 300,000 modern agricultural parks established,

these industrial bases are untying the knots of poverty in China.

As Labo often live streams about the Cliff Village,

he has accumulated over 100,000 followers.

And he has been picked by a tourism company

to be a professional tour guide for the mountain area.

So you're some kind of a tour guide?

An outdoor tour guide for the Cliff Village.

I grew up in the Cliff Village. So for this job...

You have this special passion!

I'm very happy with it.

How much do you get paid?

Close to 4,000 yuan.

Is that good enough for a family of seven?

It's okay. I will keep working hard.

I have confidence in you. I am really happy for you.

Thank you, big sis.

It's such a big difference from before!

That day when we climbed up to the mountain

I saw how you used to lead your life.

I felt so touched, you know?

I grew up in the city.

Many things that I thought were basic in life -

to you - were so hard to get...

such a luxury...

That's true. So true.

But now we really feel we are in touch with the outside world.

The rattan ladders became the steel ladders.

Before that happened, we couldn't even imagine it.

When we moved to town, the steel ladders became flights of stairs.

Yes. That change is so big!

- Indeed. - I'm so happy for you.

Thank you, my sister.

Eight years since the targeted poverty alleviation programme began,

China is lifting 10 million people a year out of poverty.

According to the World Bank,

in recent years, of every 100 people lifted out of poverty,

70 were from China.

Besides relocating the villagers and upgrading the agricultural industry,

the biggest expenses of poverty alleviation work

have been for transport infrastructure and education.

Next week, we're visiting Nujiang in Yunnan,

to see how the indigenous inhabitants have broken through barriers

and have connected with the world.