Over the past three decades, China has made sustained progress in raising the standard of living of its rural population. Using China’s previous definition the number of people living below the poverty line in rural areas declined from 250 million in 1978 to 27 million in 2010. Last week the government redefined the poverty line from a net yearly income of 1,196 RMB to 2,300 RMB and in doing so added 100 million rural residents deemed poor and able to claim poverty subsidies. In this first part of a series D J Clark explains the five stages of rural development undertaken by the Chinese government in the last 30 years.

Part 1: Introduction

Part 2: Snow & mountains

Part 3: Growing benefits

Part 4: A new education

Part 5: A road to prosperity

Part 6: Spring Festival return

Part 7: A tap in every home

Part 8: Investing in health

Part 9: Securing the future

Part 10: The next ten years

Click here for the vBook of Rural China

By D J Clark
Animation: Xu Jiye
Producer: Flora Yue

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See more videos at:D J Clark's Video Column

About D J Clark

D J Clark has worked worldwide as a multimedia journalist for more than 20 years. As well as working for China Daily he runs an MA course in Multimedia journalism at Beijing Foreign Studies University and is the Director of Visual Journalism at the Asia Center for Journalism in Manila, Philippines.