Wangjiazhai: Relying on own efforts to build new socialist countryside

The media outlets taking part in the media tour “Discovering the most beautiful village along the Xiangjiang River” visited Wangjiazhai village in Yueyang city, Hunan province on Monday.

Walking along the wide and tidy cement road into the village, the reporters see rows of two-storey houses covered by white glazed tiles in the lush gardens, and harvesters working in the golden paddy rice fields. Villagers are busy collecting rice in front of their houses.

“The village did not look like this a few years ago. It was muddy in raining days and dusty when the sky is clear,” says Wang Hongwei, the party chief of the village.

To change the backward situation in the village, since 2003, the village launched a wave of construction with the funds from villagers who work outside.

“The key is to rely on ourselves. We did not wait for government finance, but raise the funds from villagers who run business outside.”

Wang Jianmin, a villager who runs a construction company, donated money to pave the way and install lights in the village. Other villagers who work outside also came to contribute their strength to their village. Over the years, Wang Jianmin and others had invested 10 million yuan in the construction of the village. Their enthusiasm encouraged the fellow villagers who volunteered to give free labor to the construction. With their joint efforts, a school for farmers, recreation center for the aged, kindergarten and tele-education facility had been built.

With their own efforts and government support, the village has taken on a new look. It is now tidy and clean; villagers live in harmony and enjoy various cultural events.

The village is now a demonstration site for the construction of socialist new countryside in Hunan. The average annual income per capita is 6,200 yuan. All the villagers are now covered by the new rural cooperative medical system, and all children are entitled to nine-year compulsory education.

The activity, sponsored by the Hunan Daily, invites 20 prestigious media organizations in China including People’s Daily Online, Xinhua, Tencent.com, to explore six cities along the Xiangjiang River. They will use stories about ordinary people and their villages to record the profound changes of the province.