URUMQI, June 10 (Xinhua) -- Eziz Usman was born and raised in a herdsman's family on the Pamir Plateau but all he ever wanted was to wear suits.

Eziz's hometown is a village in the county of Wuqia in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, and locals traditionally depend on herding to make a living on the remote, boundless plateau.

Already in his 60s, Eziz likes to wear a black suit, white shirt and a pair of black shoes, a modern look that he says makes him look handsome. But he also enjoys donning a white felt hat while wearing his suit, so that he still looks distinctively a herdsman.

"I have always wanted to have suits of my own but we were too poor to afford them," says Eziz, 62. "Now that our financial conditions are better, I can afford to buy them."

Over the years, Eziz's collection of suits has expanded to five and he wants to buy more.

But the fashionable man's family used to be mired in grinding poverty.

Born and raised as a herdsman, Eziz has spent his entire life living remotely on the Pamir Plateau, more than 3,400 meters above sea level. A wool cloak and a sheep whip were all he was familiar with.

"My family used to live in a mud shack on the mountains," he says. "There was no water, there was no electricity, and earthquakes were frequent occurrences."

Eziz says he was scared of being harmed by earthquakes in his sleep at night.

"If an earthquake came, our family would perish," he recalls.

However, the herding family turned a corner thanks to a nationwide poverty-relief campaign that aims to eradicate absolute poverty in China by the end of this year.

In recent years, Eziz and his neighbors have relocated to new houses at the foot of the mountains. The houses are earthquake-proof and look beautiful, he says.

"We only spent 21,000 yuan (2,967 U.S. dollars) on the new house which is about 60 square meters in area, and the rest of the cost was covered by government subsidies," he says.

To help the herdsmen cast off poverty, local authorities allocated a house, an agricultural greenhouse and 3.33 hectares of grassland to each family, so that they can live prosperous lives.

Meanwhile, the authorities also offered job opportunities. Currently, Eziz is in charge of raising cows and sheep, as well as an alfalfa plantation. His wife works in a charity job in the locality.

Now that Eziz has bid farewell to poverty, he could realize his childhood dream of wearing suits.

"My salary is high now, and my wife wants me to wear decent clothes to look more handsome, so that when we walk outside, we would have more 'face,'" he says, referring to the "face culture" of winning respect and honor in public.

After relocating from the mountains, Eziz bought his first suit at a local bazaar. As his earnings rose, he bought three more in the village and in the county. But his favourite suit is the one that his son bought for him. It cost 250 yuan.

Eziz says his son works in the city, and that he is very proud.

"My son does not have to herd with whips like I did," he says. "He can make his dreams come true in the city."

Eziz says that he wants to buy more suits in the future.

"More suits mean that our lives are getting better," he says. Enditem