A new living environment, better transportation, and well-built houses have brought good fortune, vitality, business opportunities, and hope to hardworking farmers who have been tilling barren land for generations.

Last winter when we visited the city of Ziyun in the southwest of Guizhou Province, China, what we saw was completely different from the first time we came two years before.

Gravel roads have been replaced by cement. Coming from Guiyang, we spent only half the usual time on the road and didn't have to suffer any more bumpy rides.

Stores are showing up in the middle of the county, which means that better transportation, like blood vessels carrying nutrients, is reviving the local economy and changing people's lives.

After we left the city, we saw the same rugged land planted with dry corn. On the flat land stood small hills and large rocks that still made us wonder about the mystery of nature. It also made us realize how hard the ancestors had toiled on the land to make all this possible.

We heard explosions on the road. When our vehicles turned a corner, we noticed smoke and dust in the sky. Farmers were blowing up the sides of mountains and using shovels and old machines to break up huge rocks into sand and gravel to build homes. In Guizhou, flat living space is hard to come by, and the people must dynamite mountains and break up rocks to make more.

Ninety percent of the province of Guizhou is hills and mountain chains. There isn't much level land for farming and transportation. Therefore, roads carved out of the sides of mountains have become part of the artificial scenery in Guizhou. Dynamiting mountains, digging up rocks, and changing hills into terraced fields are the only ways for local people to wrest arable land from nature. These are ways to improve the lives of the people in Guizhou, who earn the lowest average annual income in China.

Barren mountains and unruly waters?

Our cars arrived at the newly built Nawang Tzu Chi Village, less than 10 minutes from Ziyun. A small stream runs in front of the village while a mountain stands behind it, and willow trees stand all around the village. We could imagine how in springtime the village would be a sea of green.

New homes built with red bricks and small green roof tiles maintain the style of the countryside but add a sense of elegance to the green mountains and rivers. Mayor Li of the town of Songshan told us, "Many people have come to ask if there are any more houses like these for sale. Actually, even my own home is not as beautiful."

The next day was the opening day of the village, but many villagers had already started cleaning up their new homes.

Yang Jin-fa, with white hair and wrinkles around his eyes, was hoeing weeds in front of his new home. When he saw us arrive, he immediately put down his hoe and invited us to see his new home.

Through the window, we could see that the interior was empty. Yang searched his pockets but couldn't find the key to his new home. He laughed, saying that the key was still at his old home, so he invited us to follow him to pick up the key.

Climbing uphill for 10 minutes, we came upon his old home. A corner was falling in, the door couldn't close, and there was a hole in the roof. However, he still proudly showed us every corner of his old home. "I built every bit of this home when I was 20 years old. It has been over 40 years now!"

His 20-year-old son and 37-year-old daughter still live with him. His son said, "The new home is better and allows us to do business in the market."

His son had given up a job elsewhere and taken over the family farm. He had also gotten married. Yang's daughter has been mute ever since she was a child. Her husband killed himself by drinking pesticide several years ago, so she came back to live with her father again.

"I've found it!" Yang found the key in the pocket of another piece of clothing that was as torn as the one he was wearing. We asked him whether he was unwilling to leave his old home, and he replied, "I still like the new house and I'll get used to it after we move in. Everything there is wonderful, and we don't need to climb hills. It's very convenient."

The new village has 50 families, 40 of whom come from nearby Shanzhai Old Village and Xiazhai Old Village. They are all poor families from the mountains. Xiazhai Old Village is where Yang used to live, and Shanzhai Old Village is another 30-minute uphill climb.

The other 10 families come from Zongdi, around 30 kilometers [18.6 miles] away. In the past, they would have to walk over two hours to reach the city. Now the new village was by the roadside and farmland was nearby, so it was much more convenient for them to do business.

On the way back to the new village, Yang sighed, "Our land is too barren!"

To outsiders, mountains and rivers in Guizhou are beautiful, but to the farmers, the mountains are unproductive and the rivers are unruly. Their crops don't bring them much money, so people have to work in the city. People with at least a high school degree can work in factories; otherwise, they work as manual laborers. The family farmland is then left to the women to tend. That also explains why the village is full of elderly people, women, and children.

The key opened Yang's new home and new life. The room on the second floor was for his son and his wife and had been decorated nicely. Tzu Chi people had given them gifts like new clothes, new comforters, and a new bed. A sense of happiness filled the house, which didn't look empty anymore.

Enough food and hope

Zhang Wenxiu, 40, carried her one-year-old child to enjoy the sun on the front lawn. She looked relaxed. She said, "Our old home was always dusty and leaky and the wind could easily sneak in. But the new location is flat and clean. It's wonderful that we can live in a new home."

"The most important thing is having flat land," said Zhang. "In the past, our farm was on a hill, so it wasn't easy to plant vegetables. We only planted corn, but that was still not enough." When her husband died 11 years ago, she had to look after her three children, all under the age of seven. If the crops couldn't feed them, she had to haul rubble or thresh grain, which would bring her five yuan [US$0.60] a day.

Zhang remarried last year. Rocking her child, she said, "I want this child to go to college too." Her oldest son, Chen Li, is now in twelfth grade and is preparing for the university entrance examinations. Her second son is in eighth grade.

"She really knows how to look after her home," said Mayor Li. "She buys rice for 60 cents a kilogram in one town and sells it for 80 cents a kilogram at another town where rice is in short supply."

Zhang's success has also inspired other villagers. Mayor Li said with a smile, "Now that they have better houses, they think about how to make more money so that their children can go to school."

Nawang Tzu Chi Village is one of the eight villages Tzu Chi has helped build in Guizhou to house a total of 303 families. So far, five villages have been completed.

The completed homes are beautiful, durable, and practical. In accordance with the lifestyle of the farmers, there are balconies to dry crops, storage rooms, pigpens, and cowsheds. The pens can also prevent health problems that used to arise from humans and animals living together.

Following Tzu Chi's construction of these villages, local governments have also carried out public works projects like setting up drinking water, electricity, wells, cultivated land for farming, roads, bridges, sewage systems, and even recycling of methane gas. Methane can be used for cooking. It can be combined with other ingredients for hygienic and environmentally friendly fertilizer.

All these construction projects have had a direct influence on the economy, health, living habits, and agriculture of the residents. Mayor Li added, "The government plans to provide funding for agriculture and aquaculture and to build cattle and chicken pens to develop the village economy."

Quitting school to work

Three years ago, the place where the Mojian Tzu Chi Village in Luodian County would be built was nothing but a mountainous wilderness with a gravel road running through, and the current villagers were then just hardworking but poor farmers in the mountains.

Tzu Chi volunteer Hsu Wen-lung, who has been doing relief work in Guizhou, pointed out that when they first visited a village in Luodian County, they discovered that the place was quite remote and that transportation was extremely inconvenient. Because it was so hard to interact with people elsewhere, many villagers had adopted near-kin marriage. Half the population in the village was thus either mute or mentally challenged, making their lives even more difficult. Tzu Chi distributed emergency medical supplies, educational subsidies, cotton jackets, and rice to them. The foundation then decided to move these people to Mojian Tzu Chi Village in order to change their living environment and improve their lives.

"My daughter, Zhongtao, told me to tell her when you came. She wants to thank you," said Zhongtao's mother.

Two years ago, the volunteers helped Zhongtao finish her junior high school education. Afterwards, when six high schools sent notices welcoming her to their schools, Zhongtao decided to quit her schooling and instead chose to work in town with 20 other people.

"She told me that since we were too poor, she wanted to work. When she earns enough money, she'll return to school." Zhongtao's mother relayed her daughter's words sadly.

Volunteer Kao Ming-shan told Zhonggui, Zhongtao's brother, "Tell your sister that if she wants to study, we're willing to help her."

Zhongtao's cousin, Cai Jinjian, was once one of those who went to work in town. He dressed very stylishly and didn't look like a villager. But when we talked to him, we sensed the kindness and industriousness unique to a farm boy's personality.

Cai was 20 years old and spoke Mandarin fluently. He had worked in many other provinces of China. Because his family was poor, he didn't go to school until he was nine years old. When he was 14 years old, he attended fourth grade; then he dropped out of school and went to work. He told us that his family was too poor to give him money for transportation, so he had worked at various jobs in nearby Guangxi Province.

He continued, "I once went to a furniture factory in Guangdong Province. They had a test of English, but I didn't understand it, so I cried when I came out... I wanted to study, but my family didn't have money."

A few years later, Cai was sending almost 90 percent of his income home in the hope that his younger brother could study. But his brother dropped out of the seventh grade and went to work too.

Two years ago, Cai heard that Tzu Chi would build homes for them, so he asked for a one-month leave from his supervisor so that he could help build the foundation and lay the first bricks for his new home. This also allowed him to earn a few hundred dollars and then return to work.

Last June, Cai discovered a tumor in his belly that made him unable to walk. He was hospitalized for three days in Shanghai, which cost him 2,500 yuan [US$302]. He went back to his hometown since surgery in Luodian County would only cost him 1,000 yuan [US$120]. In the six months from the time he first became sick until his operation and recovery, he had no income and he used up all the money he had saved.

Cai's wounds had still not completely healed yet, so he could only do some light work at home. After moving into the new house, he realized how much better it was than the old one. His old house was made of boards, so whenever the wind was strong, the house could blow over; whenever it rained, it would also leak.

Now, the new home was much better. When he recovered, he would work again for his family and his living.

Changes bring chances

Jiang Bengui, the first young farmer who moved down from the mountain, heard that Tzu Chi would help them build new homes, so he brought some young people down with him to work on the construction site.

"When I first came down from the mountain, many old people didn't agree to it," said Jiang, wearing the cotton jacket Tzu Chi had given him two years ago. "After we came down, the men worked on the land and the women chipped away at the mountains. Babies slept in their cradles nearby. We built the foundations to our homes bit by bit" Our foundation lies underneath this home."

One of the Tzu Chi construction plans was to let residents construct houses to earn some money and to help build their own homes.

The Mojian Tzu Chi Village is 30 minutes downhill from the old village. Thirty-one families moved and settled into their new homes more than a year ago. When they go home now, they don掐 need to travel over the mountains like before.

"We can do cement work in the village or in town. The work may not be steady, but it's lot better than pasturing, chopping wood, digging land, and farming," remarked Jiang, who didn't get much education. "After we came down from the mountain, we learned new things, like how to use fertilizer. We also learned how to make more money for the kids' future."

Jiang's two children now live in the city so they can attend preschool. He had never thought about this before. He said, "It's okay that we live hard lives, but our kids shouldn't stop their schooling!"

It seems that in addition to more work opportunities, the new living environment has affected the farmers, who have stayed on their poor farmland for generations, by changing their traditionally helpless mentality of "I can't let the kids go to school because I have no money."

Jiang's brother, Benrong, also lives in the new village. He and his wife, Zhau Yifen, turned their living room into a small grocery store selling such things as toothpaste, soy sauce, and batteries. They also have a small freezer for ice cream. The store is simple, but it has everything. Benrong has also changed his work and benefited from the life of the new village.

"The new home is very good and very spacious. We want to thank you!" Yifen expressed her gratitude to us while selling a package of instant noodles to a neighbor's child.

Beautiful mountains and rivers

The new villages have brought vitality, business opportunities, and hope to the local people.

Tzu Chi volunteer Kao Ming-shan told us that a year after the residents moved into Mojian Tzu Chi Village, they built a huge pen for 300 farm animals. The local government has given them funding and is planning ways to sell the animals so that the residents can earn more income. In addition, the government has started a new plan focusing on how to improve farm products in Guizhou.

To help improve farm products, for example, one research institute in Luodian County has imported a type of cactus from Mexico. The landscape and the climate of Guizhou are especially suitable for the growth of this kind of cactus. It can withstand drought and insect attacks, and it can be harvested four to six times a year. An acre of land can produce 4,000 kilograms [8,800 pounds] of it, and it can grow for 10 years after being planted. The cactus can be eaten raw or processed into a kind of dietary supplement. Because it contains high amounts of calcium, it is good for the heart and its rind can be used for skincare.

Since Tzu Chi started building the new homes, the government has continued to develop various kinds of work opportunities. These new opportunities are a constant source of good news to farmers who earn only 1,000 yuan [US$120] a year.

"Besides building homes for them, we hope that the farmers can become self-sufficient," said Kao. The Duimenzhai Tzu Chi Village currently under construction is located in the center of town. Transportation is very convenient, which will attract huge crowds in the future. The first floor of each building can be converted to stores that will provide poor residents with a chance to make a living in the future.

As for Mauying Village, which is still in the planning stage, there will also be other opportunities. Volunteer Hsu Wen-lung observed, "Mauying is on the road from Ziyun to Anshun. The landscape is very beautiful and full of special cultural sights, so the new village is suited for design as a cultural village for tourism."

The new village residents will consist mostly of Miao and Bui aboriginal minorities. If the village can be developed into a tourist center featuring the music, dance, and tribal art of these minority groups, it will help maintain the culture of these groups and help villagers develop businesses and increase their incomes.

The Tzu Chi villages do not interfere with or destroy the mountains, land, and forests. Instead, they protect the water and land of the original landscape and will serve as good examples when other people in Guizhou build homes in the future.

In the process of protecting and managing resources from mountain areas, the barren mountains and unruly water do not have to be burdens to these people, but can become beautiful scenery instead.