With neat rows of apartments, and clean, wide roads, Sanjianxi village in the Zhangqiu district of Jinan, Shandong province, has no reminders that the village was once a mess, a place where residents lived in poverty.

Sanjianxi had long been hampered by poor soil quality. Through the cultivation of corn and wheat, each household was able to make no more than 2,000 yuan ($278) per year.

But a transformation began when Gao Shuzhen was elected as Party chief of the village in 2004. Over the past 17 years, she has been working to build an efficient branch of the Communist Party of China to help residents make better use of their land.

So far, an agricultural project, ecological livestock-breeding areas, tourism projects and an industrial park have been developed, providing jobs for more than 80 percent of the local workforce.