Yang Yuxiang had planned to leave his job as a rural school teacher in central China's Hunan Province for a position in a city school, but changed his mind after the central government began to implement measures to improve rural education.
"I don't need to look for a new job now because the school will be renovated and rural teachers, like me, now qualify for attractive remuneration packages," Yang said.
Measures have been rolled out across the country to close the gap between rural and urban education, including better pay for rural teachers and better facilities for rural schools.
Education reform is just one element of the country's extensive reform drive. In 2016, 97 key reform tasks were completed, 419 reform plans were made, and frameworks for reform in major sectors were drawn up.
And there is little sign of the reform drive losing steam in the new year. Just days after the start of the Lunar New Year, President Xi Jinping chaired a meeting of the Central Leading Group for Deepening Overall Reform to chart the course for further reform.
At the meeting, the President said leading Communist Party of China (CPC) and government officials are key to China's reform drive. They must act to "shoulder the heaviest burden, and chew on the hardest bones," he said.
Xi himself has taken the lead to do so. More than four years after taking the helm of China, reform has emerged as a hallmark of Xi's governance.
Comprehensively deepening reform is one of the "Four Comprehensives," a strategic blueprint drawn up by Xi, which creates pathways to realize the Chinese dream of national rejuvenation.
He also went to great lengths to make his vision of reform a reality. Xi's first trip outside Beijing as the leader of the CPC was to Guangdong Province, the forefront of China's decades-long reform and opening-up drive.
"Reforms are always in the present tense, not the past tense," Xi has said.
Last year, he visited Xiaogang Village, often referred to as the birthplace of rural reform, in east China's Anhui Province, where he called for a solid agricultural sector and improved well-being of farmers.
Reform and opening up are key to deciding the fate of modern China, he said in July during an event marking the 95th founding anniversary of the CPC.
Already, measures drafted by the Central Leading Group for Deepening Overall Reform have been designed to address issues such as urbanization, poverty alleviation, innovation and the market's role in resource allocation.
"These reform measures are so wide-reaching that they touch on the lives of all Chinese," said Xu Guangjian, vice dean of the School of Public Administration and Policy, Renmin University of China.
"In this sense, China's current reform drive is more than just a venture of the ruling party. It represents the common aspiration of the entire people," he said.
