Cement roads are laid for the village in 2007. [Photo provided to China Daily]

"I told him there were two or three," Gao recalled. "He then went door to door to visit them. After that, he came to my house."

At the time, Gao, also an agricultural technician, was considered one of the "better-off" villagers compared with others. Yet his home was sparsely furnished — just one bed, a round table and two stools.

After a brief conversation at the doorway, Xi stepped inside. With Xi's tall stature and the low height of his doorway, Gao worried he might hit his head. "I quickly reminded him to bend down, otherwise he might bump his head," Gao said. Heeding the warning, Xi bent slightly and walked into the house.

Xi asked more detailed questions about villagers' production and living conditions, including the village's development plans after the implementation of the "household contract responsibility system", a reform that allocated collective land to individual households.

The conversation lasted for more than an hour.

"After learning how poor and backward our village was, he encouraged us to plant more tea and fruit, develop tertiary industries and lift ourselves out of poverty as soon as possible," Gao said.