Jiange, a northern agricultural county in Sichuan, used to be a famous defensive pass during the time of the Three Kingdoms (220-280). The cultural heritage there has a history of more than 2,000 years. However, it was unable to attract a large number of tourists due to weak infrastructure. The county was severely hit during the earthquake and suffered a huge economic loss. Though Jiange had reconstruction funds of 15 billion yuan ($2.2 billion), it was difficult to meet the financial requirements for its 57 villages and towns.

"While giving priority to projects involving people's livelihoods," said Qin, "we emphasized to convert the 'transfusion' (relief-oriented) aid into the building of 'blood-producing' projects with the funds, with a hope that the new construction will be able to bring in real benefits."

With more autonomy to allocate funds, the county government decided to adjust the restoration plan by cutting off some small tourism projects after careful consideration. Together with savings from an office building project for the county government, Jiange was able to pool funds of 500 million yuan ($77 million) to develop the Jianmenguan tourism project.