Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, talks with villagers in Duancun Village, Sengnian Township of Fenxi County, north China's Shanxi Province, Jan. 26, 2022. Xi on Wednesday began his visit to Shanxi Province ahead of the Spring Festival, or the Chinese New Year. (Xinhua/Yan Yan)
TAIYUAN, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- President Xi Jinping extended Spring Festival greetings to all Chinese people during his visit to north China's Shanxi Province from Wednesday to Thursday.
Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, wished Chinese people of all ethnic groups, compatriots in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, and overseas Chinese healthier and happier lives in the Year of the Tiger, and expressed his hope that the motherland would increase in prosperity and strength.
This year's Spring Festival falls on Feb. 1.
Xi, as the Party's top leader, has for 10 consecutive years visited people at the primary level -- especially those from disadvantaged groups -- ahead of the Spring Festival, the most important holiday in the Chinese calendar and an occasion for family reunions.
Xi on Wednesday visited the people of Fengnanyuan Village in Huozhou City, one of the places hit hard by floods last October.
Xi learned about local post-disaster reconstruction, crop replanting, improvements to the local disaster relief and emergency response system, and measures to keep people warm in the winter.
When he sat down with a family to hear about their day-to-day lives, Xi said that locals who have been affected by the disaster are often in his thoughts and that he chose the village as his first stop to see the reconstruction and recovery first hand.
Xi stressed the need to dovetail reconstruction with rural vitalization, improve integrated river basin management, and improve the capacity for disaster prevention, mitigation and relief.
Later that afternoon, Xi went to Duancun Village in Fenxi County.
In a villager's home, Xi checked the kitchen, the bedroom and the sheepfold, and asked about the family's income and their life.
Xi was pleased to learn that the family, after shaking off poverty in late 2016, has prospered through raising sheep and seeking work in other places.
"The CPC's resolve to ensure all Chinese people live happy lives has remained unchanged for more than a century, and it will not falter," Xi said.
Speaking in front of villagers at a local square, Xi said that the fundamental purpose of the Party is to strive to ensure people's happy lives.
Noting that the goals of modern socialist China cannot be attained without the modernization of agriculture and rural areas, Xi urged efforts to consolidate the achievements of poverty eradication, advance rural vitalization, and improve people's lives. ■
