Improving roads lead rural residents to happier, wealthier life

Thanks to projects for improving roads in rural areas, Xindu district in north China’s Hebei province has continuously improved the quality of life of its rural residents.

Although mountainous areas account for 70 percent of the district’s total, Xindu in Xingtai city of Hebei has managed to build over 500 kilometers of new roads and 180 new bridges in rural areas in recent years, with the total mileage of its rural roads reaching 1,886 kilometers. Besides, more than 90 percent of Xindu’s rural areas now enjoy regular bus services.

Aerial photo taken on Aug. 3, 2020 shows mountain roads leading to Chenqiao Village, Zhouning County, southeast China's Fujian province. (Xinhua/Jiang Kehong)

“With a bus stop right at my doorstep, it’s so convenient for me to go to the People’s Hospital of Xindu District for a regular check every month,” said Hou Quanying, a resident in the district’s Houaoyu village, who had a heart stent installed several years ago.

A broad and compacted road now connects the village to the district’s downtown area, and buses are also being put into operation, Hou said excitedly. She still remembered that the road in front of her house was bumpy in the past, explaining that she previously had to go to the hospital by renting a car, which cost a handsome amount of money.

Xindu is representative of China’s efforts to build good roads and maintain them in rural areas. China has built or upgraded about 2.36 million kilometers of rural roads, with the total rural road mileage reaching 4.38 million kilometers, benefiting more than 500 million rural residents. As of the end of 2020, all townships and administrative villages with feasible conditions had been connected to asphalt and concrete roads, in addition to operating bus services.

While bringing added convenience to rural residents, improved road conditions also stimulate expanded rural consumption. Due to the improvements in rural roads and the mail service network, in 2020, the number of express packages delivered to and from rural areas surpassed 30 billion, with the exchange of industrial products and farm produce between urban and rural areas totaling 1.5 trillion yuan ($234.7 billion). Statistics also show that the retail sales for rural consumer goods increased 15.6 percent year-on-year to over 4.2 trillion yuan in the first three quarters of this year.

Thanks to improving road conditions, local governments across China have boosted the development of industries that suit local conditions, driving further income growth for villagers.

With the total mileage of rural roads amounting to 6,573 kilometers, Tongjiang county, Bazhong city of southwest China’s Sichuan province now sells its local specialty tremella, a variety of edible fungi, to a massive market. Fueled by surging market demand, the county saw the price of tremella increase from 200 yuan in 2000 to 1,000 yuan per kilogram last year.

In 2020, Tongjiang produced 375 tonnes of dried tremella, with an output value of 400 million yuan, bringing each of the more than 8,000 households that planted tremella an average income growth of 23,000 yuan each. The county also sells its deep-processed tremella products throughout China.

Wang Yonghai, a farmer who has been planting tremella for 40 years in the county’s Xiajiangkou village, is one of the locals who has benefited from improving roads and the resultant expansion in local industry. Last year, Wang garnered 50,000 yuan from the planting of tremella.

In the past, Wang’s quality tremella couldn’t sell at a good price due to poor transportation. Now merchants buy his tremella at a decent price in the village, thanks to the opening of a hardened road connecting the village to the outside world in 2018. Besides, the next-day delivery of his products to customers in Chengdu, capital city of Sichuan, can be guaranteed.

Meanwhile, improving roads are also driving a boom in rural tourism. In 2019, China’s rural areas received 3.2 billion tourists, generating operating revenue of more than 850 billion yuan while helping 12 million farmers increase their incomes.