Photo taken on Aug. 17, 2020 shows Leng Juzhen taking photos in a sunflower field in Xiaonanhe Village, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province. (Xinhua/Wang Jianwei)

Leng Juzhen, 48, always hoped she would become a writer. However, a choice she made six years ago derailed her from her literary dreams and led her to a small village near her home city of Shuangyashan, Heilongjiang Province.

Arriving at Xiaonanhe in December 2015 as the village's Party chief, Leng was mesmerized by the picturesque mountains and rivers nestled near China's northeastern border. She wandered around with a camera and contemplated how she could make use of resources to develop tourism in Xiaonanhe.

Some local villagers, such as Chen Zhaojun, used to frown upon her "pretentious" manner. "I didn't know what was so beautiful about this shabby little village," recalled Chen. "I doubted whether she was able to be our Party chief."

Many others shared Chen's feelings. They believed Leng came to the village to pad her resume with experience of being a poverty alleviation official, which is why when Leng put forward the idea of setting up a tourism association, most of the 400-odd villagers ignored it.

Though it was sometimes hard to get by, people in Xiaonanhe had gotten used to living a life of poverty and had no intention, let alone confidence, to make any changes. Year after year, they had grown and harvested on the village's some 1,300 hectares of barren land and spent most of their time drinking with neighbors and playing mahjong.

In order to motivate more villagers to join the cause, she worked hard to persuade Dong Lianying, an outgoing villager who enjoys high prestige in Xiaonanhe, to chair a key department of the tourism association.

Her decision proved fruitful. Some people started to follow Leng's idea of giving the village a facelift. They pasted traditional paper-cuts on their windows and raised red lanterns under their roofs, lighting up the dusty village as well as Leng's heart.

"I couldn't change some 400 people all at once, but I could start with one," she said. "I had to prompt them to get off the couch and do something to make money."

For several days in early 2016, Leng braced the freezing cold and trudged through knee-deep snow up to a nearby mountain, still holding her beloved camera.

After the photos she took of the lantern-lit Xiaonanhe were posted and spread on social media, shutterbugs from nearby poured in the village during the Lunar New Year holiday, scrambling for the best spot to snap photos.

Then came TV crews from outside Heilongjiang, with some of them choosing to set up shooting bases in the village, adding some new tourist attractions.

After more and more villagers earned dividends from the tourism association, Leng finally won their trust as a responsible, qualified official.

Photo taken on Aug. 19, 2020 shows Leng Juzhen talking with villagers in Xiaonanhe Village, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province. (Xinhua/Wang Jianwei)

Leng did not stop there. Though tourists brought the dilapidated village to life, she believed a pillar industry was needed for sustainable economic growth.

Since villagers grow chilies and are generally good at making chili sauce, Leng decided to expand the vegetable growing area and set up a chili sauce workshop in the village after the harvest season of 2016.

Despite her role as a leader, Leng dedicated herself to every step of the production, learning from scratch. As tourism-related work took up most of her time during the day, she spent nearly every night in the workshop to keep an eye on the boiling sauce.

Her perseverance touched villagers. In late 2019, they raised funds and drew on a part of the village collective's assets to found a food company. For the first time in history, Xiaonanhe had its own company with a standardized workshop.

After two years of development and Leng's persistent efforts in expanding marketing channels, the company is running well, with annual sales of chili sauce expected to exceed 500,000 bottles this year, according to Leng.

She added that over 50,000 visitors have come to Xiaonanhe since 2016 and revenue from tourism has reached nearly 5 million yuan (around 773,000 yuan). The village was listed as a key national-level village for developing rural tourism in 2019, one year after all households got out of poverty.

People have seen concrete improvements in their lives. "I had lived in poverty for most of my life. Never had I imagined that one day I could move into a nice house built by the village and that the eggs of my hens would be so popular with tourists that they often sell out very quickly," said villager Yang Junhua.

Photo taken on Aug. 19, 2020 shows Leng Juzhen taking photos of villagers working for a tourism project in Xiaonanhe Village, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province. (Xinhua/Wang Jianwei)

Leng finished her term in Xiaonanhe in August. Over the nearly six years of her stay, villagers' average yearly income rose from around 3,000 yuan to 14,000 yuan.

Looking back, Leng said the most important thing for a poverty alleviation official is to win people's trust, give them confidence and galvanize them into action.

"I used to cry alone when people looked down on me or rejected my thoughts and ideas. But I knew I should keep trying, perhaps just for a little more and things would eventually work out," Leng smiled.

She still loves her camera and has taken thousands of photos during her days in Xiaonanhe, recording villagers' smiling faces while working, family reunions during the Lunar New Year, and the transformation of the village.

Leng herself has also changed a lot. Sometimes when she browses her old photos taken before coming to Xiaonanhe, the woman she sees with nice makeup, curly long hair and dressed in stylish outfits looks like another person, she said. But she is quite comfortable with her new style composed of plain T-shirts, sports pants and short hair.

While Leng did not become a writer and had wondered what she would eventually become during the early days of setbacks in the village, she has found her true self in Xiaonanhe, a land "full of life and vitality," she said.