"In winter, students often felt so cold that they had to bring a coal heater from home to keep themselves warm," he said. "Now it's totally different."

Scholarship

In 2013, Xia used 1 million yuan of her savings to set up the "Xia Sen Scholarship" to support high school and college students from impoverished families in the two counties.

So far, at least 182 students have benefited or are benefiting from the scholarship.

Lai Houfang, from Shangyou, is one of them. Xia's scholarship supported her in completing a four-year teaching degree. She's now a teacher in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.

"I made up my mind that I would learn from Granny Xia and use my strength to help others, from the first day I received support from her," Lai said.

"After graduation I went to teach in Xinjiang, which is where I was needed," she said.

Another beneficiary of Xia's scholarship from Danfeng, who chose to remain anonymous, was admitted to Tsinghua University in 2015.

In 2018, he and other students who received the Xia Sen Scholarship went to her home to visit her.

To his surprise, Xia and her husband led a very simple life and the furniture in their home was ordinary. "I was moved by Granny and her husband, both of whom are members of the Communist Party of China," he said. "At that time, I was planning to submit an application to join the CPC. By visiting Granny Xia and her husband, I had a deeper understanding of CPC members."

Cao said the couple have always lived a frugal life and say they have enough food and clothes and don't need much.

"But in terms of helping students, they always say that what they have done is far from enough," she said.

"She often says her life has improved so much compared with what she had in Yan'an decades ago. Now her only hope is that her money can be used to help students."