Chen Jundi, a recently relocated resident of Lidian village, Tongwei county, Gansu province, poses with her children on the doorstep of their new home on Sept 4. The relocation has cut the time her children have to walk to school from 1 hour to 10 minutes.[Photo by Wu Xiaohui/China Daily]

It's 5:40 pm on a Friday afternoon in September, 11-year-old Chen Donghui and her 7-year-old brother Chen Tianqi, after walking home from school, put down their bags on the doorstep of their new home at a poverty alleviation resettlement site located in Lijiadian township, Tongwei county, Northwest China's Gansu province, and start to eat apples in the mellow sunlight.

"I worried very much about my children in the past, especially in bad weather, as they had to walk about an hour to get to school. Often, by the time they would arrive back home, it was already dark, but now it's only 10 minutes' walk," says the children's mother, 36-year-old Chen Jundi, at the family's new home.