This is NEWS Plus Special English. I'm Marc Cavigli in Beijing. Here is the news.
The number of rural poor in China dropped by nearly 67 million from 2010 to 2012. By the end of 2012, there were less than 100 million rural residents living in poverty.
According to a report of the State Council, China's Cabinet, the per capita annual net income in key poverty stricken areas increased nearly 19 percent.
Infrastructure construction in these areas has constantly improved.
A new highway opened to traffic last October in Tibet's Medog County, which was known as the last county in China without a highway.
Rural education has moved forward in the poor areas. At the end of 2012, 97 percent of children aged between 7 and 15 in these poor areas had attended school.
A Beijing eatery chain Qing-Feng Steamed Stuffed Bun Restaurant has reported a 40-percent rise in sales after President Xi Jin-ping ate at its branch in Xicheng District in downtown Beijing.
Customers dubbed the food Xi ordered 'the president's set meal'. But the restaurant says it has no plan to promote such a set meal.
Staff members at the company's distribution center have been starting work earlier than before in order to meet the demand for the particular buns President Xi ordered.
Sales at the restaurant where President Xi visited reached a historic high last Monday. A waitress at the store says that at one point, at lunchtime, almost 500 people were in the store expecting the food they had ordered. Most of them ordered the type of buns the president ate.
You're listening to News Plus Special English.
