Mar. 13, 2018 -- On a bustling street in the old town of Tongde County in northwest China's Qinghai Province, Tenzin touted a variety of Tibetan clothes to crowds of customers.

"Business is quite good," said Tenzin, 52.

Tenzin has left poverty behind thanks to his Tibetan clothes-making business and government help. More will follow him on the road out of poverty as China has set 2020 as the deadline to finish building a moderately prosperous society and eradicate poverty.

China will allocate 106.1 billion yuan (about 16.8 billion U.S. dollars) in funding for poverty alleviation work in 2018, some 20 billion yuan more than last year, said Liu Yongfu, director of the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development.

In the past, Tenzin and his seven other family members struggled to make ends meet in Songduo Village, a place known for prolonged drought and sandstorms. Songduo Village is under the jurisdiction of Tongde County.

"We could only grow potato and highland barley," Tenzin recalled. "We lived in a mud shack, and the money from the crops could barely cover the cost of fertilizer."

In 2002, Tenzin and his wife left their children at home and became apprentices at a Tibetan clothes company in Chabcha Township, capital of Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, which administers Tongde County.

"We did not make much money that year, but we definitely learned some good skills," he said.

The following year, the couple found a job making Tibetan clothes and began to make money.

"After 2002, we not only made some money, but also broadened our horizons," he said.

In 2008, Tenzin conducted a survey in his hometown and found that locals were unsatisfied with the Tibetan clothes, which were all from other localities. He decided to open a store to make clothes for locals, an idea his wife initially opposed.