After Shen Jianzhong graduated from college and returned to his hometown in Chongqing's Wulong county, an elderly acquaintance would often tell him: "You shouldn't have come back to grow produce here. There is no money to be made from it."
But Shen has proved her wrong. In the past two decades, his peach plantation has not only brought him fame and fortune, but also helped put his neighbors on the path to prosperity.
Poverty-stricken Wulong, which is short on infrastructure and industry, is known for its unique karst landscape. Because of the topography, the ground is rocky, and the meager soil can hold little water.
In 1996, Shen, a graduate of a local agricultural college, started his peach-growing business in Fazi, a remote mountain village in Huolu town with about 2,000 residents.
According to a government survey in 2014, nearly 10 percent of the people in Fazi had incomes below the national poverty line - which was 3,000 yuan ($435) annually per capita in Chongqing.
In 2015, the central government pledged to adopt more policies to help lift the country's 70 million poor people above the poverty line by 2020, promising impoverished families 1,500 yuan a year in seed funds to help them earn money by selling produce.
While at college, Shen decided that after graduation he would plant fruit trees, rather than finding a job in the public-service sector, which is often seen as a dream job for young people in rural areas.
