摘要
AN arid climate and infertile land kept Dingxi City in North-west China's Gansu Province,-on the upper reaches of the Yellow River,in a state of poverty for centuries.Qing Dynasty(1644-1911)gov-ernor Zuo Zongtang(1812-1885)said in a letter to the emperor in 1876 that the area was the poorest in the country.Throughout its long history,Dingxi's inhabitants primarily made their liv-ing by farming,but due to low rainfall and frequent drought,the wheat yield was only 750 kg per hectare a year.Lo-cal residents hence always lived under a lurking threat of starvation.
