Jin Yuqin was born in 1974 into a family of the Bouyei ethnic group in southwest China's Guizhou Province. She is now head of Jinyuan Woodcraft Factory, and the secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Committee of Hongguang Village, Yixian County, Anhui Province in central China.

In 2012, she was selected as a delegate to the Party's 18th national congress. In July 2016, she was awarded the title of "National Outstanding Party Affairs Worker" at the ceremony to celebrate the 95th anniversary of the Party's founding.

Even before this, Jin was known far and wide in her immediate neighborhood. Originally, she was remembered as the pretty Bouyei girl who married a local guy and settled down in his hometown far from her own. Later, she became famous for opening a successful woodcraft factory and helping local people achieve affluence.

She settled down in Hongguang Village more than two decades ago after getting married. She found the village environment quite familiar to her, because there were lots of bamboos here, just like in her hometown nestling amid great mountains.

She then thought of taking advantage of the abundant natural resources to open an ethnic woodcraft factory. After gathering information on local bamboo supply, market trends and sales channels, she opened the first factory promoting ethnic woodcraft in Yixian County.

However, initially, the factory was not a success. For quite a long time, Jin got no orders. When she tried to seek bank loans, she was swindled out of a large sum of money. She even had a narrow escape from a car accident. Yet, the hardships didn't dampen her enthusiasm.

Gradually, things began to pick up. Now, Jin's business has grown from a family workshop with less than 10 workers into a woodcraft processing factory with a 100-strong workforce. Its annual output value has increased from less than 100,000 yuan to more than 10 million yuan. Its products are sold as far away as Japan and Australia.

When the working life turned better, Jin began to help people around her, because it was one of her original aims in opening the factory. "When I first came up the idea of opening a factory, one reason was to take advantage of local wood reserves, while the other was to help the local poor people find a stable job."

At Jin's insistence, every year when the factory hires new staff, it gives priority to people who are industrious but poor, people of ethnic minority groups and people who are handicapped. Besides, when purchasing wood from villagers, the factory will offer a unit price 50 yuan higher than the normal market price.

Jin's deeds won her the trust from villagers. In 2011, she was voted by all Party members in the village as the chief of the local Party committee.

"Instead of talking the talk, we must walk the walk," Jin said. Under her leadership, the village began to exploit local forest resources, establish rural cooperatives, promote the transfer of land-use rights, and develop animal husbandry on high mountains. The projects created many job opportunities for the poor and women in the village, bringing forth wealth to free them from poverty.

The first year Jin was voted as the village's Party chief, the per-capita income in the village was 4,876 yuan; however, five years later, the figure had doubled to 9,690 yuan.

"A village official must always bear people's interests in mind," Jin said. In summer, when thunderstorms came, she would run to visit people living in dilapidated houses to see if there were any leakages. In winter, when the snows came, she would go to visit the infirm and childless old people and poor families to see if they needed any help. When villagers got sick or met with accidents, she would offer them a ride to hospital and donate money to their treatment.

In the village, Jin was always the first to participate in charity affairs. Over the past years, she has donated to many village projects, including village schools and helping lonely old people. Under her influence, villagers became more and more active in charity affairs. Whenever a charity project kicked off, they would volunteer for service.

Due to these efforts, the village has built an old-age recreational center, a center for left-behind children of migrant workers and a village library. The village roads were also renovated, and several waste treatment facilities were built to improve the local environment.

Jin was born in the great mountains of Guizhou, but she has devoted all her energy into improving the livelihood of people living in Anhui Province far from her hometown. Despite all the changes in her life, she has always borne in mind the responsibility of a Party member. "I will do anything I can to help people live a comfortable life," she says.

Go to Forum >>0 Comment(s)