Deng Yingxiang, delegate to 19th National Congress of the CPC [Photo provided to China Daily]

The small village of Mahuai in Southwest China's Guizhou province was not easily accessible for years because of a mountain.

Deng Yingxiang, the village's Party secretary, knows well the pain of the isolation from her own experience.

"My first child was ill one night. But it took us so long to cross the mountain that he died because we could not get him to the hospital in time," says Deng.

"That hurt a lot and I knew we had to build a road."

So, from 1999 to 2011, Deng and her fellow villagers built a 216-meter-long road through the mountain.

"When we completed the road on a cold winter day in 2011, every villager was too excited to sleep," says Deng.

Deng shared the story when giving a speech recently to the geophysical and geochemical exploration team of the Guizhou Geological Exploration Bureau.

She said that if she had met the team earlier, then the road would not be curved.

Deng was a delegate to 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. She told the story to emphasize the thrust of the 19th Party congress and the spirit of President Xi Jinping's speech there, when meeting the Guizhou delegation.

Chen Zongquan, the leader of the team, says Deng's speech was inspiring, especially when she used her own story to explain the spirit of the 19th Party congress. And he added that his team would give technical support for the development of Mahuai.

From Oct 27 to Dec 24, Deng gave 53 speeches across China, using her own words and stories to share the spirit of the congress.

"The report of the 19th Party congress says that all rural residents living below the current poverty line will have been lifted out of poverty, and poverty will be eliminated in all poor counties and regions by 2020," says Deng.