"Go to China's far west, where our country needs us the most." Inspired by the slogan, in the summer of 2020, Ye Yaoning, a graduate of Shenzhen University, embarked on his journey to Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, about 4,000 kilometers away from his home.

Ye was involved in China's Far West Program, which started in 2003, sending a total of more than 410,000 college graduates and postgraduates to the grassroots of the underdeveloped western region for a period of one to three years of volunteer service.

In 2010, Guangdong province, Ye's hometown, was selected to provide pairing assistance to southwestern Xinjiang's Kashgar, a city within one of 14 contiguous impoverished areas that were the main battlefield of poverty alleviation in China. Guangdong's aid headquarters in Xinjiang, where Ye served for two years, have been stationed in the suburbs of Kashgar for 12 years, during which time the local GDP tripled.

The young graduate was in charge of a project to cultivate wealth creators, or local entrepreneurs, with funds of nearly 24 million yuan ($3.44 million) and technologies supported by the Guangdong government. They are expected to be role models and provide local people with job opportunities to alleviate poverty.