While growing up in a village at the foothills of a mountain in Southwest China's Sichuan province I would stare at a truck or a bus when it passed by on the only bumpy road that led to the outside world. I always dreamt of planes flying overhead every day, but in those days one was lucky to see even one in a month. Those were the days when the villagers used oil to light their lamps and lanterns, because there was no electricity. The village was connected to a power grid just before I enrolled in a university in the early 1990s.

Tremendous changes have taken place since then, though my mountainous county - Tongjiang - is still listed as one of the poorest in China.

Many laborers have migrated to cities to work on construction sites to support their families. And some students, thanks to easier access to higher education, have found decent jobs in cities after graduation. But despite these changes, a number of villagers are still leading a difficult life. And nationwide, more than 40 million people share their plight.