When Li served as governor of Henan province, he tried to seek a coordinated development of industrialization, urbanization and agricultural modernization. Thanks to these efforts, the inland province's economy ranked fifth among Chinese provincial-level regions.

Henan has also emerged as an industrial powerhouse, while its grain output surpassed 55 million metric tons last year. When attending a panel discussion with NPC deputies from Henan, Li called on the province to further pursue industrialization, IT application, urbanization and agricultural modernization.

Li Keqiang has paid close attention to the development of the service industry, employment and low-income subsidized housing. Over the past five years, China has started the construction or renovation of 30 million units of affordable housing. Seventeen million units have been completed, improving housing conditions for millions of people.

Li has called for closing not only the gap between urban and rural areas, but the gap between different districts within cities. More than 12 million dilapidated urban homes were renovated over the last five years. In February, Li called for a second round of slum renovation.

In the coming five years, another 10 million urban households can expect to bid farewell to slums. Nearly 100 million people will benefit from the two rounds of renovation.

People's well-being

Li spent some of his younger years living and working in the countryside, where he held a job as CPC chief of a production brigade. He came to be acquainted with the hardship and bitterness of rural life and developed a strong devotion to the people. Since assuming office in the State Council, he has conducted frequent in-depth field surveys in his quest to find solutions to improving people's livelihood.

Understanding the truth through research has long been Li's work style. His inspection tours were always low-key and he has maintained this approach since entering the central government.

Li is adept at examining small clues to find what is coming and seeking proper ways to resolve systemic problems.

On a snowy day in December, Li arrived in Qingbao village in Longfeng township in Hubei province, which he visited five years ago. Gathering villagers to his side, Li listened to their complaints and recorded them in his notebook.

Upon departing, he spotted a cornfield on a steep slope on the roadside. Climbing up the muddy slope, he grabbed a handful of soil.

"That's exactly the farmers' way, just like what we farmers do when checking our land," recalled villager Yang Fang.

Villagers cited access difficulties, stressful management and poor harvests as their biggest problems in cultivating the sloping fields. After discussing the matter with villagers, Li suggested turning the cultivated land into economic forests, relocating villagers to towns, and adjusting the local industrial structure. His proposal has been put on the State Council's agenda and a national work conference was held in Longfeng in March.

Li's profound understanding of agriculture impressed a villager, who recalled that when Li came to the paddy field, he instantly bent over to check how the rice grew and discussed with the villager how to increase the harvest and farmers' income.

Prior to this year's Spring Festival holiday, Li made an unplanned visit to the house of Gao Junping, a resident of a run-down area in north China's Baotou city. Surprised by the new visitor, Gao's grandson, who had been taking an afternoon nap, fled into a bedside closet half-naked.

As Li chatted with Gao on the bed, the young boy darted out and ducked under a quilt, exposing his buttocks to the camera. The unedited footage broadcast by China Central Television made a splash online, with netizens applauding Li's down-to-earth work style and the "cute and spontaneous" images.

Li later held a meeting with the shantytown's neighborhood committee. He remarked that China should not "build high-rises on the one side and keep slums on the other side" in the process of urbanization. He called for greater efforts to renovate the city's dilapidated areas and provide better houses for its residents. "This is an overarching issue concerning people's livelihoods that should be pushed ahead against all odds," he said.

During an inspection tour of Fenghuang county in Hunan province two years ago, Li was told a local girl named Long Guiju was too poor to go to college. Li said he hoped the local government could lend a hand, and he urged a thorough resolution of education-related difficulties. "We cannot only fulfill her own dream of going to college. Such problems should be discovered and resolved in an overall manner," he said.