One of three people to receive the July 1 Medal, the Communist Party of China's highest honor, posthumously last month, Huang Wenxiu died in 2019 on the front line of the nation's fight against poverty.

An official in Baini village in Baise, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, Huang lost her life at the age of 30 when a flash flood swept her away as she was driving back to work.

After earning a master's degree from Beijing Normal University in 2016, Huang returned to Baise, her hometown, instead of seeking a career in the capital.

"I grew up in a remote mountainous village where quite a number of folk are struggling with poverty, and all I wish is to do my part to improve their lives," she once said.

With the goal of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, the Chinese government stepped up its nationwide campaign to eliminate poverty in 2015. Huang volunteered to join the grassroots poverty alleviation effort and was appointed Party chief of Baini in 2018.

With limited transportation, the village in the mountains was classified as deeply impoverished in 2017.

Huang soon discovered that her job was not easy. It took her two months just to visit the 195 impoverished households scattered through the village.

"After one year in the job, I've traveled 25,000 kilometers by car," she wrote in her work log. "However, the road out of poverty is more like a long march in my mind."

Huang introduced tangerine growing techniques to the village, expanded the planting area, and emphasized the importance of e-commerce sales, which led to 20 metric tons of tangerines being sold for 220,000 yuan ($34,000).

Huang Xu, Baini's current Party chief, said 418 villagers from 88 households were lifted out of poverty thanks to Huang Wenxiu's efforts during her time in office, with the village's poverty rate plunging from 22.88 percent to 2.71 percent.

In a written instruction honoring Huang Wenxiu in 2019, Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, urged Party officials and young people to learn from her strong sense of mission, responsibility and dedication to poverty reduction.

Huang was also awarded the title "role model of the times" by the central government for her poverty alleviation efforts in Guangxi.

Inspired by her dedication, the local government and villagers carried on the anti-poverty fight. There were no registered impoverished households in the village at the end of last year and the villagers' per capita income had climbed to 15,000 yuan a year.

"Right now our major task is to push forward all-around rural vitalization," Huang Xu said. "I believe that one day we can transform our homeland into the one Huang Wenxiu once dreamed of."