In 2003, Xi Jinping, then Party Secretary of Zhejiang Province, visited Xiajiang Village, observing the heavily polluted local environment. He advised closing the mountains off for afforestation and finding solutions to clean the river.
"He chatted with us as if we were brothers. He was amiable and affable,”said a Xiajiang villager.
Thanks to the "Thousand Villages Demonstration and Ten Thousand Villages Renovation" project launched to comprehensively renovate 10,000 administrative villages in the province, Xiajiang Village has transformed from a poor village into a "green, wealthy, and beautiful" settlement.
Along with thousands of other villages across China, it presents a picturesque rural landscape.