Agent of change

Chen Huanbo with children from the village's primary school.[Photo provided to China Daily]

Most entries are about his daily work such as visits to families, farms and schools, and his accounts fascinated readers on Tianya and Tiexue, two popular online forums in China.

"Many people call southern Xinjiang the home of terrorists. I refute this. I didn't really know much about southern Xinjiang before I came here. Now I want to tell the world about it," says Chen, who works in the regional industry and commerce bureau.

Azkhan, a mainly agricultural village, has a population of 3,563 and about 98 hectares of farmland. The average annual income in 2013 was 5,252 yuan (about $846), according to Chen.

The village is on the outskirts of Atushen city, which is known for its shrewd business people. Local residents buy silk products from eastern China to sell in the region and do business in Central Asian countries such as Kyrgyzstan.

More than 500 residents have passports, and travel abroad is common.

"Some are very rich and some are very poor. They all like to have the exteriors of their houses sumptuously decorated," he says.

In his official capacity, Chen once gave detailed guidance to a villager, Zaire, on how to open an auto repair shop.

Within three months, Zaire had earned more than 150,000 yuan and had employed about 30 workers.

In his diary, Chen ponders why some villagers are so poor, as the government has many preferential policies for farmers in Xinjiang.

He attributes the poverty of some families to a low per capita area of cultivated land and the lack of labor.