In 1957, around two hundred "Rightists" from Kunming, Yunnan arrived at a gulag--a "thought reform through labor farm"--in Mi-le County, which later also received another two hundred "Rightists" from other farms. As part of the "Great Leap Forward," these inmates had to destroy forests to reclaim wasteland, burn down iron to smelt steel, eradicate rice to plant sweet potatoes, and experience the manmade "natural disaster" of the great famine in 1960. In the midst of their toils they also underwent the "Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution" and received large groups of sent-down youth from Shanghai, Chongqing and Kunming. After 21 years of "remolding," these "Rightists" were finally rehabilitated in 1978 and left the farm in succession.