SHANGYUAN VILLAGE
Luo Meiwei, 12, and her younger brother are left-behind children in Shangyuan Village, Jiangxi Province. The two used to squeeze into a leaky, shabby house with their grandmother.
"We had to finish homework before sunset as there was no electricity in the old house," recalled Luo, who now lives in a three-storey cement building with three bedrooms and access to high-speed internet with the help of the local government.
A passionate reader, she had famous lines extracted from her beloved novels pasted on the wall. The village library, which was built in 2015 with a collection of over 2,000 books, is her favorite place to spend her time.
"The collection includes encyclopedias and books on agricultural technologies, Chinese literature and foreign novels, among others. The library has offered a window for kids in our village to know more about the world as many have no chance of traveling out of the mountains," said Zeng Meichang, a village official.
