Villages provide added convenience to rural residents through constant improvements to rural public service offerings

In an attempt to provide public services to rural residents, all villagers’ committees in Anning, a county-level city in Kunming, southwest China’s Yunnan Province, began to build public service centers starting in 2021.

In the past, local villagers had to go to the county seats to handle affairs related to household registration and old-age care insurance, but nowadays they can have these relevant matters dealt with in their own villages.

“We visited the villagers on a regular basis and learned about their needs,” said Qian Yilin, director of the villagers’ committee in Shizhuang village, Anning city.

After learning that elderly people in the village, especially those who were living alone, faced difficulties with cooking their own meals, the villagers’ committee took prompt action by initiating plans to build a canteen for elderly people with funds collectively administered by the village along with subsidies it had received from the city government.

People above the age of 60 need to pay only 200 yuan per month ($31.46) each person to enjoy two meals a day at the canteen. “The dishes provided by the canteen taste so much better than those cooked by myself,” said 82-year-old Liang Fengying, while expressing gratitude toward the villagers’ committee for providing such considerate services.

“This year, we aim to provide elderly residents with free meals at the canteen,” said Qian, while explaining that with the money the canteen earns from selling pollution-free vegetables and red pears, a local specialty fruit, the village is expected to achieve this goal soon.

A student and a volunteer read in the reading room of Biji village, Fusui county, south China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region on Feb. 16, 2022. (Photo/Zuojiang Daily)

Last July, Biji village of Quli township, Fusui county in Chongzuo city, south China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, invested 186,000 yuan ($29,295) to turn villagers’ unoccupied houses into a reading room in an attempt to enrich the cultural lives of rural residents.

The 95-square-meter reading room provides more than 3,600 books that cover six topics, such as children’s books, books on science and technology, and books on culture, among others, being able to serve more than 3,700 people in the village.

“The reading room has become a popular site, and many villagers like to take their children here to read books,” said Liu Jingwen, deputy secretary of the Party committee in Quli township. Thanks to such an environment where education is very much valued, more than 70 students from the village have been admitted by universities since 1949.

Ma Chaoqun, a staff member from the publicity department of the Party committee of Fusui county, said that every year, each rural reading room in the county will be granted an allowance of about 2,000 yuan, which can be used to buy about 60 books.

The reading room in Biji village also provides a space for rural residents to attend training courses on agriculture and health, offered by experts and skilled talents. In 2021, Biji village held seven training sessions inside the reading room, benefiting 220 villagers.

“The rural reading rooms remind people of the importance of learning,” said Wu Aichun, an official from the publicity department of the Party committee of Guangxi. In the future, the autonomous region will establish a reading promoters’ team to share good books with rural readers on a regular basis in an attempt to further stimulate rural residents’ passion for reading.