Xiaojiayou needs a translator to help her understand Hu Jintao's report to the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), but illiteracy in mandarin Chinese does not prevent the Tibetan delegate from leading her barren home village towards the goal of a "moderately prosperous society".

 

She has led 40 women in the Douyu village on the China-India border to open a two-hectare orchard in the wasteland. "The local government bought us saplings and everyone chipped in to buy fertilizer and dig irrigation ditches," she said through a Tibetan interpreter.

 

"It may seem nothing to people outside the Tibet plateau, but it's a start of our progress towards prosperity," she said.

 

The mother of two joined the CPC in the early 1970s and was also delegate to the previous National Congress in 2002.

 

"I learned a lot from the other delegates and was determined to do something for the fellow villagers."

 

A member of the Lhoba ethnic group, a small branch of Tibetans with only 2,000 people, the Tibetan serf's daughter who lost both parents at nine does not even know her own age -- elderly people in the village say she's 53.

 

Xiaojiayou's family is not the richest in the village, but for decades, she's been doing what she can to help the poor.

 

Her home in Lhunze County in Shannan Prefecture is in the grand canyon of Yarlung Zangbo River. Until quite recently there was no road or any link with the outside world, and it took several days to reach Lhasa, the regional capital.

 

Despite its five consecutive years of two-digit GDP growth, southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, with an average altitude of over 4,000 meters, remains one of China's most underdeveloped regions, a result of its harsh natural conditions and a weak economy.

 

Since 2001, the central government has invested more than 6 billion yuan (US$770 million) a year to boost Tibet's infrastructure construction, provide medical care and other social security programs to local herders and farmers, finance children's schooling, cultural heritage protection and build a TV and radio network.

 

Douyu village, with slightly more than 500 people, also benefited from the investment, with a road paved and electricity and tap water piped in. Seventy percent of the families have moved into new homes, thanks to the financial aid from the government, said Xiaojiayou. "I'm really happy for them."

 

Children in the village, like others in China's impoverished border regions, get a government allowance to go to school: 1,200 yuan (US$154) per person for primary school students and 1,350 yuan (US$173) for junior highs.

 

"Now that food and clothing are largely available, the villagers have come to preserve the traditional culture of the Lhoba ethnic group," she said.

 

She herself has organized the women to make bamboo baskets and knit Tibetan-style wool blankets for sale to the county seat.

 

Yet for Xiaojiayou and her fellow villagers, the road to prosperity is long.

 

"We've got a road, but a drive to Lhasa still takes six hours," she said. "Most villagers lack the skills to become rich and know little about marketing."

 

Her immediate worry is still in the orchard.

 

Its apples and walnuts promise a good harvest next year. "But we need to find the right market and sell for good prices."

 

(Xinhua News Agency October 17, 2007)