As the official in charge of poverty reduction in China, Fan Xiaojian has made a habit of marking the places he has visited on a map hanging on his office wall.

Aba Tibetan and Qiang autonomous prefecture, in the mountainous northwest of Sichuan province, is marked with thick lines.

Fan, director of the State Council's Poverty Alleviation Leading Group Office, has visited the area five times since 2007 to investigate an endemic disease that has affected thousands of rural residents and dragged them into poverty.