Zhang Baogen insists that he is still a farmer and feels awkward when he visits his old neighbour's trendy new house.
The village in east China's Zhejiang Province, where he has spent almost all his 62 years, is now called "New Weizhang Community," as Shaoxing County, to which it belongs, changes into a boom town.
"I used to eat rice and fresh vegetables that grew in my own fields, but now I have to shop for groceries like city dwellers," said Zhang, "What's the difference now between urban and rural lives?"
Following a massive redevelopment program, agricultural land and rural homes in the community have given way to villas, grocery stores and the largest wholesale market of light industrial products in Asia, where many local residents are doing business.
Zhang said his life today is more comfortable than before. "I don't have to toil in the fields from dawn to dusk. The 220 yuan (US$26.5) monthly pension is enough for my basic necessities."
The family now lives in one of the 471 three-storey houses that the township government has built for locals. They are nicely furnished with household appliances all comparable to the average urban household.
Urbanization in the affluent eastern province has cut its rural population by 500,000 annually since the late 1990s. This is considered the best way to cut rural poverty, bridge the widening urban-rural income gap and resolve a host of other problems confronting China's rural areas.
But it is impossible to turn every farmer into urban resident.
Governments at various levels in the province are therefore resolved to improve the quality of life for the rural population. As a result, infrastructure construction tops their agenda.
Zhejiang Province has extended its road network to include more than 10,000 villages, making it convenient for farmers to take buses. Meanwhile, thousands of farmers have moved into new communities with bright, cozy and spacious houses, better sewage systems and sports and entertainment facilities.
(China Daily March 2, 2005)
