A colorful Guizhou after transformation
In the past, my impression of Guizhou province could be described in just three words — damp, bumpy, poverty-stricken. And, it wasn’t an exaggeration calling Guizhou an impoverished province. Official statistics reveal that, in 2015, 4.93 million people in the southwestern province were living in poverty, accounting for nearly 9 percent of the number of people in China who were living in poverty. That made Guizhou the poorest province in the country.
However, during my recent visit to Guizhou, I was stunned in a positive way. The image of poverty had faded. The province’s highlands area has recorded the highest GDP growth rate in the country, its infrastructure has developed rapidly, the province is home to the world’s largest radio telescope, FAST, and some of the world’s biggest tech companies have set themselves up in Guizhou.