A group of Party officials from the city of Nanyang, Henan province joined some experts from the city's Zhangzhongjing Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine recently provided free medical services in the nearby village of Lijiazhuang, to help more people from the poverty-stricken area.

The officials, who had visited the village previously to study poverty-relief, had found that the root cause of poverty was a lack of quality health care and modern agricultural methods.

The hospital specialists gave free examinations and treatment to over 200 people on the day, while the officials handed out at least 500 manuals on agricultural techniques, and a forest economy, peanut cultivation and fertilization.

The officials also consulted local water conservation officials to discuss building water conservation facilities to develop local fruit cultivation. Lijiazhuang is one of 713 key poverty-relief villages around Nanyang, with 1,300 residents, 406 of whom live below the poverty line.