Pei Chunliang left his family business to his wife and went to Beijing to sell marble produced in Huixian city of Henan.

In 1999, he had bigger ambitions. Selling and transferring all his businesses in Peizhai village to other people, he invested in mechanical casting, mining and hospitality. He became one of the wealthy entrepreneurs in Huixian and was elected representative of the Xinxiang city's people's congress, the local legislature. After that, he was member of Huixian's people's political consultative conference.

Pei Chunliang recently ran into Li Jiazhi, a farmer from Peizhai village, at a hospital in Huixian. Li said she walked 15 kilometers pulling a wooden cart with her ill husband. She told Pei Chunliang she and her husband could not afford bus tickets, as they had only 50 yuan, which was not enough for his medical bills.

Pei Chunliang felt sad about the scanty livelihood Li and other villagers were facing. "I was not happy, even though I was comfortable, seeing other villagers as poor as church mice," Pei Chunliang said.