Zhang, the founder and president of Huanghe (Yellow River) Group in Fugu County, Northwest China's Shaanxi Province, started village business ventures in 1994. Today, his company, consisting of 11 factories and several sales companies, is one of the largest village and township enterprises in the county.

"I am honored to represent farmers when attending the meetings," said Zhang, who was born in a peasant family in Shipan Village in Fugu County in 1947.

He can never forget the hard days when most villagers worried about how to fill their stomach.

Zhang started a small travel business with 130,000 yuan (US$15,720) in Shipan in the early 1990s.

Zhang won national fame when he became the first peasant sponsor to build a 1,350-metre-long highway bridge on the Wenli River, a branch of the Yellow River in 1997. It cost a total of 22 million yuan (US$2.66 million).

"We farmers are freeing ourselves of poverty with our own intelligence and hands and we will do better in the future," Zhang said with confidence.

(China Daily November 7, 2002)