British Ambassador Visits Liangjiahe, Retracing Xi Jinping's Years as a Sent Down Youth

British Ambassador to China Peter Wilson recently visited Liangjiahe village in Yan'an, Shaanxi province, the place where President Xi Jinping spent seven years of his youth. He toured local cave dwellings, spoke with residents, and took in the changes that have reshaped what was once a remote mountain village over more than five decades.

From a sent down youth to a governing philosophy

In the late 1960s, a teenage Xi arrived in Liangjiahe as one of millions of urban youths sent to the countryside. He spent seven years there working alongside villagers, helping build dams, terraced fields and one of the area's earlier biogas digesters, and joined the Communist Party of China during his time in the village. Official accounts often point to this period as the starting point for the people first approach he later championed as leader.

A village transformed

Liangjiahe today looks little like the poor village it once was. New roads, housing and tourism facilities have gone up over the years, turning it into a stop on Shaanxi's red tourism circuit. The village has leaned into that history, building a rural tourism trade around it that draws visitors from China and abroad.

Wilson's visit is the latest in an official series of reports inviting foreign observers to sites tied to Xi's personal history, an effort to use the story of one village to explain the Communist Party's approach to governance to an international audience. Itineraries and narration for such trips are typically arranged by Chinese officials, so what visitors see tends to reflect a curated version of the story.