Full coverage: 80th Anniversary of the Victory of the Red Army's Long March

In mid-January, 1935, the army arrived in Zunyi City in southwest China's Guizhou province. It then held a convention at a school campus with more than ten thousand people in attendance. Students and teachers responded to the Red Army’s policies and joined the revolution. The venue was the original site of Zunyi Normal College, a school dating back to 1907. And today, the college continues this revolutionary spirit, and is helping people who living high up in the mountains to get out of poverty.

The 20 kilometer mountain ascent takes more than an hour. Transport has always been a headache in Gaoshan village. Dr. Luo Yuanfeng works at Zunyi Normal College. He is now serving a two-year term to help the village out of poverty.

"Over five hundred people from 50 households live on the mountain. They manage over 13 hundred hectares of bamboo groves. If the road were repaired, it would boost the sales volume of the bamboo shoots, and help to retain their freshness," Dr. Luo said.

As part of a relief program, professors from the college come to the village.
They help locals grow native square bamboo in a more productive way. 

"The experts have advised us on ways to improve the output of bamboo shoots. We chopped off the fresh and old bamboos, while keeping the young ones. The yield has been improved," Villager Jin Chuanmeng said.

Gaoshan Village also has tobacco field covering over 40 hectares. For decades, growers tended the crops in a traditional way.

"Tobacco growers here apply fertilizer on one side of the ridge. It makes the leaves on one side grow much better than the other side. This results in tobacco leaves of uneven quality. So, we suggested they apply fertilizer on both sides," Sui Changling, professor with Zunyi Normal College's School of Life Science, said.

Schooling began in the village in the 1960s. But the quality of education is not always good.

This primary school has about 50 students that come from nearby villages. For the past five decades, there has been just one full-time teacher responsible for the education here. And, only three students have been admitted to college throughout this time.

Students from Zunyi Normal College have come to provide some timely help.
They have been doing this during each vacation since 2015.

"The pupils are very honest and genuine. When I interact with them during class, I can feel their craving for knowledge. I think I need to share with them as much knowledge as I can," Student Zhao Ziqi from Zunyi Normal College said.

China’s government has listed Gaoshan among the poorest villages in the country.
Dr. Luo says, with programs in place, the number of people living in poverty will drop from 20 percent to 4 percent by the end of this year.

"We’ve finalized a blueprint for the village’s growth. It takes into account its natural resources, the mountain and the river, to make it a national forest park, and boost rural tourism," Luo Yuangfeng, Gaoshan Village Party Secretary of On Mission from Zunyi Normal College, said.

The college has helped secure a fund of 20 million yuan to repair the road.  It’s now a matter of patience before real changes take place.