DIVERSIFICATION HELPS CREATE BETTER LIVES

Fresh thinking is benefiting residents of isolated communities in North China

Zuoquan county, in the northern province of Shanxi, was once called Liaoxian county.

However, in September 1942, it was renamed after Zuo Quan, a general with the Eighth Route Army, four months after his death in the county as he and 2,000 comrades attempted to break out of an encirclement by the Japanese army.

The county, deep in the Taihang Mountain Range, was easy to hold but hard to attack, which was why the army chose to establish its headquarters there for five years.