Villagers pack up, head toward modernity

By CnAgri Print

TAIYUAN, Dec. 4 (Xinhua)-- Although he has been "demoted" from a township chief to a village head, Xu Ruishan feels a sense of pride for managing to lead efforts to establish a poverty-stricken mountain township as a new village near town.

Jingtangsi Township, which once consisted of 1,400 farmers in 14 villages, was established as a new village in 2009, and it took about three years for everyone from the township to move in.

Nestled deep in Luliang Mountain, north China's Shanxi Province, the township had struggled with poverty for generations before relocating. In the township, residents made their living by felling trees and reclaiming virgin soil, further damaging the already fragile environment.

"Older generations had moved here to escape war, but the isolated location greatly hinders our development nowadays," said Xu, now head of Qinglian New Village located near Wuzhai County, Xinzhou City.

Luliang Mountain, which features annual precipitation of 150 mm to 400 mm, is vulnerable to a host of natural disasters, including soil erosion, landslides and drought. H People living there found it difficult to fetch water, and it was a two-hour walk to the county seat. Grain output was also low, according to Xu.

For 51-year-old Sun Wenxin and other farmers living on Luliang Mountain, poverty had been a way of life.

Sun could barely support his family by growing oat and beans on his two hectares of land, and soil erosion only made matters worse.

"I had to walk about two miles to get to the wells, and there was no hospital deep in the mountain," Sun recalled.

Data from the central government suggests that about 10 million poverty-stricken people like Sun live amid extreme environmental conditions such as high altitudes, stony surroundings and deforestation.

When the county government asked him if he would like to move his family in 2009, he quickly agreed.

"The relocation program offered a 5,000-yuan subsidy per person to help us cover costs and start a new life," said Sun, who moved to his new home three years ago. (5,000 yuan is equal to 802 U.S. dollars.)

From valley to plain, loess caves to brick houses, the 1,400 former township residents have been living a completely different life in the new village. The villagers' per capita net income increased from less than 900 yuan before the relocation to 3,400 yuan last year, exceeding the national poverty line of 2,300 yuan for the first time.

Thanks to the relocation, as much as 5,000 cubic meters of timber has been spared in the mountain each year, and the village also set up a vast rose field to make use of the farmland on the mountain.

"Growing roses not only helps with environmental rehabilitation, but also brings income for us," Xu, the village head, said.

Qinglian New Village was established ahead of a national relocation project involving some 2.4 million people nationwide from 2011 to 2015, the largest project of its kind ever undertaken by the Chinese government, according to figures released by the National Development and Reform Commission in September.

The massive relocation in Xinzhou has seen over 30,000 people move out of mountainous areas annually over the past two years, and the city plans to relocate 170,000 people from disaster-prone regions to towns with better economies and environment by 2015, according to the city government.

Liang Xiaodong, chief of the city's poverty alleviation office, said the mass relocation is a new and effective poverty alleviation tool.

"Compared with other relocation projects, this project is designed to help those being relocated to have better living conditions at a relatively lower price, and it's also a plus for environmental protection," said Liang.

But such a large-scale relocation program requires a great deal of government support and financial resources, Liang said, adding that farmers also worry about how they can make a living while confronting the pressures that come along with modernity.

To help solve this problem, the local government supports relocated villagers like Sun by offering them vocational training programs and farming equipment.

In Qinglian New Village, the government helped farmers raise 24,000 sheep as another source of income.

Sun found a construction job near home. His wife, who used to be a stay-at-home mom, found a job as a waitress in a downtown restaurant, which brings the family another 1,000 yuan per month.

"Now we have places to search for jobs," Sun said, "and I can also go back to farming roses deep in the mountain to make money."

Source：Xinhua News Agency