In 2001, when Jiewen village in Wuping county, Fujian province, reformed the ownership of local forestry assets, Xie Xiangrong's family of six was allocated more than 30 hectares of woodland.

Before his death in 2013, Xie's father had been ill with various ailments for almost 20 years and his mother has senile dementia, so neither could work. That left the family heavily in debt, and it was 14 years before the assets they had been allocated began to generate an income.

In 2009, Xie began to build a new house to replace his dilapidated home, but a lack of funds meant it took three years to build the two-story house, which was decorated last year. The family only began to benefit from their forestry assets in 2015, after they were given a logging permit that allowed them to fell some of their trees, bringing in 80,000 yuan ($11,750).