Yu Shu’ai grew up in one of the villages lying by the Qingfengling reservoir in Anzhuang Township. Due to poor soil quality and uneven landform, almost all reservoir dwellers in the area had to scrape a living on barren farmland. Yu’s family was one of them, but had never expected that life could turn downright harder.

In 2012, Yu’s husband died of an illness. The medical bills had drained all her savings, leaving her and her son in financial strain.

Yu’s life was given a restart in 2014, when the Anzhuang local government invited Yu to join one of the township's poverty relief projects, which aim at improving housing and employment conditions for impoverished residents.

Under the project, Yu moved to Dingguo Bihu, a resettlement community, and got re-employed in new jobs: processing tea leaves, planting grapes, tending apple trees.

Yu is just one of the many beneficiaries of anti-poverty projects carried out in Anzhuang.

The township has not only resettled all reservoir dwellers like Yu's family to brand-new housing, but also took advantage of the reservoir's water resources to develop multiple businesses such as orchards, tea plantations, wineries and hostels, using lands circulated from the resettled villagers.

Besides salaries, Yu and her son are also entitled to dividends from the government-backed poverty alleviation businesses, as well as microcredit gains, resettlement subsidies and poor single mother allowances. Their annual family income has exceeded 30,000 yuan (4,224 U.S. dollars).