On March 10, Yang Kang, a rural student from Ankang, Northwest China’s Shaanxi province, was surprised to hear her name being mentioned by Premier Li Keqiang on television.

During a discussion with lawmakers from her hometown at the annual session of the National People’s Congress on March 9, a lawmaker told Premier Li that the “left-behind” girl and her family he visited three years ago in Ankang had moved into new houses.

“Yes, I still remember that lovely girl,” the Premier said.

That girl is Yang Kang, and she remembered the moment when Premier Li walked into her broken-down house just a few days before the lunar new year in 2014.

The Premier talked with her family about measures to help them improve their living conditions, and encouraged Yang Kang to call her dad, a migrant worker who was still working far away in Zhejiang province.

“A big man came to our family!” She told her dad in the call. Her words were mentioned again by the lawmaker in the March 9 meeting, which made everyone laugh.

“In fact, people are the real big men. They should be the focus of our work,” Premier Li said, and poverty alleviation is one of the most important jobs for this administration.

For four consecutive years, the Premier has spent his lunar new year visiting poor families in remote areas. At the last executive meeting before this lunar new year, he asked authorities to set up a mechanism led by government chiefs to help poor families.

Premier Li Keqiang visits lawmakers from Northwest China’s Shaanxi province and discusses with them the government work report on March 9, 2017, Beijing.

According to the government work report this year, in 2016, 12.4 million poor people in rural regions were lifted out of poverty; 2.4 million people were relocated to more inhabitable places, and 6 million apartments were rebuilt for shantytown residents.

In November 2016, a five-year plan on poverty alleviation was issued by the State Council, which sets a goal to lift all families living under the current poverty line out of poverty by 2020.

As for 16-year-old Yang Kang, life has changed a lot for her family and village in recent years. A cement road has been built in the village, and her family has moved to a new house in the nearby town thanks to the relocation program.

Her dad also got a job promotion last year, and now he can make more money and come home twice a year.

Now, her biggest wish is to go to college in the city, closer to her dad.