Liu Qijing, First Party Secretary of Changpo Village, helps children see the world beyond the mountains

Editor's note: To celebrate the upcoming centenary birthday of the Communist Party of China and promote the five-year program for "strengthening Guiyang's position as the provincial capital", Guiyang Daily Media Group, Guiyang Net and Qian Video plan to make reports on rural vitalization in forms of short videos, micro-documentaries and webcasts. The reports will focus on consolidation and expansion of Guiyang's achievements in poverty alleviation, grassroots party building, new-type urbanization, agricultural modernization and people who lead the rural development. The first series of Role models in Rural Vitalization tells village Party secretaries' stories in fighting against poverty, promoting party building and developing the countryside.

[Photo/WeChat account of Guiyang Foreign Affairs Office]

In 2018, Liu Qijing, a foreign affairs official of the municipal government, became the first party secretary in Changpo Village, Xinpu Buyi Ethnic Town, Wudang District, Guiyang City. The past three years has witnessed Liu growing into an excellent leader in Changpo where he devoted himself into the village's development.

Foreign language learning is difficult for students in rural area due to lack of teachers. Liu knows the importance of learning a foreign language since he had been an interpreter and translator for many years. Liu found that there were about 30 students in the local primary school, and these children living in the mountains were truly curious about the outside world, but lacked ways to learn about it.

As a fluent English speaker, Liu boasts good knowledge of foreign countries. He sought help from China Association for Promoting Democracy, a non-communist political party with rich education resources, and successfully invited qualified native English teachers to teach kids in the village on a regular basis since the Children's Day of 2018.

"The children were active in the class every time when the English teachers came to teach them, as if they had seen the world outside the mountains through interactions with the teachers." On the Children's Day of 2019, the village primary school held a "Cultural Exchange Day". Teachers and the children spent a happy and meaningful time together in performing Buyi ethnic songs and dances, playing English games and drawing paintings.

Liu has made children's interactions with foreign teachers a consistent practice in the village. Interaction forms become various and teaching results are better now. "I believe these interactions will plant a small seed in each child's heart, and one day the small seed will grow into a towering tree, helping them grow up. Well, I suppose this is the meaning of my work in the village." said Liu with a big smile.