TOP: Naibao Merizuo, then 14, reads in front of her old residence in Abuluoha Village, Butuo County, southwest China's Sichuan Province, March 21, 2006. BOTTOM: Naibao Merizuo (1st R), 28, poses for a group photo with her husband Qiesha Secong (1st L) and four children at their new home in Abuluoha Village on Dec. 25, 2020. Abuluoha, a village encompassed by mountains and cliffs, is located in a river valley about 60 kilometers from Butuo County in southwest China's Sichuan Province. As its name in the native Yi language denotes, the village was once "a place off the beaten path," serving as an isolated treatment center for local leprosy patients in the 1960s. Years after the disease was eliminated in the area, Abuluoha became an administrative village in 2007. With a population of merely 253 people, most of whom are of the Yi ethnic group, Abuluoha had long suffered from poverty and poor transport infrastructure due to the rugged mountainous terrain. Driven by nationwide anti-poverty efforts, great changes have taken place in Abuluoha within years. Kids started to receive primary education when the village's very first school was established in 2005. The villagers gained access to safe drinking water and electricity supply in 2007 and 2010, respectively. By 2019, the village had been provided with full 4G network coverage. On June 29, 2020, villagers moved out of thatch houses into concrete ones at a poverty-relief relocation site. The next day, the operation of a 3.8-kilometer road along cliffs and ravines put an end to the village's history without paved roads. In this set of before-and-after images, the photographer has recorded individuals and families in Abuluoha, in an effort to capture changes happening to and around them over a 15-year time span. (Xinhua/Jiang Hongjing)
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