Li Baoguo was a university teacher in Hebei Province. He thought it wasn't enough to give lessons just in a classroom. Li spent his whole life helping poor farmers improve their agricultural (农业的) skills. In 2016, the year he died, President Xi Jinping said that he was like "Yugong on the Taihang Mountains".
Li Baoguo did most of his important work in the Taihang Mountains. He heard that the farmers there were very poor and decided to help them. He thought that the farmers needed change the empty, lifeless mountains around them into green land and grow crops and trees on the mountains.
He taught the farmers how to make ditches (沟渠) to collect rain water, and then helped then grow apple trees and other crops. He organized more than 800 training lessons and wrote simp books for them to read. After 1981, he spent more than 200 days every year planting trees and crops with the villagers. Thanks to him, this land now is covered with crops that help the farm make a lot more money. Li worked hard in the countryside of Hebei Province for 35 years. He helped about 100,000 farmers to live better. In all those long years, he never complained (抱怨) about the working conditions in the mountains.
In 2018, a film, The Taste of Apple, was made. It tells the story of Li Baoguo. When it was shown in one of the villages that he had helped, people cried. The farmers recalled the hard work of Li. They said they would never forget his dedication (奉献) to helping them live a better life.
