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Wu Qixiu is Party secretary of Shimen (Stone Gate) Village of Maotang Township, Lianyuan City, Hunan Province. He was one of the deputies who attended the recent 16th CPC National Congress. Wu graduated in 1987 from the Economics Department of Peking University. He gave up the opportunity to get a Beijing hukou, which confers the right of residency in the capital and is the dream of many who come from the countryside. He returned to his poor hometown in south-central China's Hunan Province. Wu Qixiu was an outstanding student all through his childhood and college days. In 1983 he was admitted into the prestigious Peking University. Not only was it remarkable that he matriculated when just 16 years old but also that he did so as the number one candidate in liberal arts in Loudi Prefecture of Hunan Province. All this was achieved in the context of fierce national competition for places. Not surprisingly everyone in his home village forecast he would have a brilliant future. At Peking University Wu proved to be a diligent if somewhat unconventional student. He is blessed with a photographic memory, which served to astound his teachers and earn him the nickname "whiz" among his classmates. Wu had a habit of reading extracurricular books in class. On one particular occasion his teacher remonstrated with him over this odd pastime but Wu seemed to pay no attention. Losing patience, his teacher challenged him to relate to the class what had been covered in the lesson. But this was no ordinary student, this was Wu and he just started repeating everything that the teacher had said in the lesson, word for word. After a few minutes of this his teacher really had no choice but to concede the point. It's not surprising that Wu was envisioning a career as an economist. From late 1984 he began to make preparations to enter the Peking University Graduate School. But what was to happen in the real world outside his ivory tower was to make such an impact on him that he would chose an unexpected career path. During the summer vacation in 1986, Wu Qixiu, together with several classmates, embarked on what was to be for him a fateful trip. They went to GuangZhou City in south China's Guangdong Province, Wenzhou City in east China's Zhejiang Province and to his hometown in Lianyuan City, all to undertake research into living conditions. Wu was amazed at the affluence of GuangZhou and Wenzhou compared with his hometown. As Wu's group were winding up their investigations in Lianyuan and preparing to leave for Peking University, local officials told them that the city was planning to launch large-scale projects on energy and raw materials and was badly in need of the necessary professional expertise. On the train back to Beijing, Wu recalled all that he had seen. He thought again and again about the words of his hometown officials. He came to a decision. As soon as he arrived back at the university he wrote a letter to the government of Lianyuan City. In this he described a sense of mission to get to the grass roots and apply what he had learned in the cause of local economic development. Wu's decision came as a great surprise. He soon received a letter from his elder sister. So opposed was she to his return that she even wrote in terms of the family depending on him to "bring honor to their ancestors." But Wu wrote back to say that he was confident that he had made the right decision and he wouldn't change his mind. In the summer of 1987, Wu Qixiu returned to Lianyuan. Still just 20-years-old, he was appointed to the key position of deputy director of the Lianyuan Municipal Planning Commission. Once in post, Wu worked to ratify over 200 projects. Won over by his probity, efficiency and devotion to work, the local people praised Wu as an "honest and capable official." In 1989, Wu moved to take up a new post in impoverished Qishu Township. There he worked tirelessly for three years helping the local peasants to shake off their poverty. It was in 1995 that Wu finally came to the remote and even poorer Shimen Village. It had a population of some 1,600 and an annual per capita income of only 480 yuan (US$58). Quite a number of workgroups had been dispatched to help the village before but all their efforts had been in vain. Regretting their past failures, a member of one of those workgroups once drew together a few poignant lines of verse. They went something like this:

Stone gate, stone gate Not to pass has been our fate Going in or going out Seems we failed without a doubt

At first the villagers were suspicious of Wu Qixiu: They thought he must be just a career climber looking for a vehicle for advancement. "We'll soon teach him a lesson if starts wasting our money or our labor," they said to themselves. During his first month, Wu went from door to door to visit the villagers so that he might better understand them and their village. This gave Wu the inspiration he needed and soon a blueprint took shape before his eyes. His vision was one of building infrastructure, attracting investment and promoting private enterprise. Everything was soon in high gear as Wu began to put his plans into effect with the support of the villagers. By 1996, Shimen Village had already completed a number of essential infrastructure projects. Soon afterwards Wu and his assistants set off to visit Xinjiang, Guangzhou, Shenyang and Chongqing to attract investors. They encountered many difficulties and frustrations but their untiring canvassing moved the hearts and minds of many business folks. On one occasion Wu made an 80 hour train journey to Urumqi, capital city of remote Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in northwest China. His mission there was to persuade tycoon Xiao Anjiang to invest in Shimen Village. Xiao is a native of the village and from time to time still returns there on holiday. During the Spring Festival of 1996, Wu visited Xiao several times. At last Xiao was touched by Wu's sincerity and agreed to invest 14 million yuan (US$1.7 million) in Shimen Village by setting up a factory there. Other enterprises were to follow. These included an enamel plant, an aluminum wares factory and a packaging company. All mushroomed in the village thanks to Wu's unrelenting efforts. Today the village's Hongyu Enamel Industry, with an annual production put at 150 million yuan (about US$18 million), ranks fifth among its counterparts in China. The village's thermos factory boasts the second biggest output in the country. The people of Shimen have now established a nationwide sales network to promote their products. In addition, the village's industrial products have even been exported to more than 40 foreign countries including Spain and Belgium. Wu Qixiu was not to stop at the industrialization of Shimen Village. He soon also had plans for reforming the village's agriculture on his agenda. These plans included the setting up of the Lianyuan Cattle Industry Co. Ltd. This now provides employment for a workforce of no fewer than 3,000 comprising people from the neighboring villages and laid-off workers from urban Lianyuan. It is returning annual profits of the order of 160 million Yuan (over US$19 million). By 2001, the per capita income of Shimen Village had reached 8,600 yuan (US$1,040), 18 times the figure of 7 years before. Wu Qixiu has received recognition of his remarkable achievements. In 1999 he was elected as one of the "Ten Outstanding Chinese Youths." Speaking at a meeting of his Peking University alumni Wu said, "Our school has produced great statesmen, educators, scientists, writers and entrepreneurs but not a village head. Now I can fill this gap."