By staff reporter LI WUZHOU

To Chinese people, Hunan is synonymous with Mao Zedong, as it was his home province. Mao set the course of China's modern history, and his memory is still revered across the nation. Even today, it is from Beijing to Changsha, capital of Hunan Province, rather than to the more prosperous Shanghai or Shenzhen, that the No. 1 train travels.

Apart from Chairman Mao, Hunan is also known for its passionate women and spicy dishes. Local residents believe these three factors have nexus. Mao is quoted as saying: "Those who cannot endure hot food are unable to persevere in the revolution." Mao's first wife, Yang Kaihui, also a Hunan native, was seized and killed by the Kuomintang when she refused to betray her husband. Mao mourned her in a poem widely read and quoted in the 60s and 70s.

On the 109th anniversary of Mao's birthday, our China Today reporter visited Mao's hometown in Hunan to see how it has progressed.

A Hot Tourist Destination

The mountain village of Shaoshan where Mao was born is some 100 kilometers from Changsha. When Mao left his home for the city and took up higher education 90 years ago, the journey took him several days on foot. Today, thanks to an extensive highway network in the province, it is a one-hour drive.

On the grand occasion of Mao's birthday, this small hamlet heaves with tourists, and there was a rattle of firecrackers resounds throughout the day. There is nothing extraordinary about Mao's former residence, as regards size or architecture, but to the Chinese people, visiting it is a pilgrimage rather than a sight-seeing trip.

Not far from the house is the famous Mao Restaurant whose specialty is the late Chairman's favorite dish -- braised pork. The proprietress, 75-year-old Tang Ruiren, is a daughter-in-law of the Mao family. Her restaurant has brought her fame, and fortune to the extent that she owns three cars.

The Mao Restaurant buzzes with chat and the clink of glasses on this celebratory day, and a local opera company performs to wish customers happiness and prosperity. On the door hangs a placard advertising more for more partners in the highly successful 24-hour a restaurant chain established in Beijing and other major cities in China. This former political sanctum is now an economic dynamo.

The growing awareness of the market economy among local people is also apparent in the adnacebt Mao Zedong Memorial Par. Parks commemorating historic personages are generally built by the government. This park was, however, a joint  venture co-founded by Mao's village, the Mao Restaurant and the Huanggang Goods and Materials Administration. The investment was recouped after 7 years.

Hunan is also the hometown of many other distinguished personages in Chinese history, such as Liu Shaoqi, late chairman of the People’s Republic of China, and Zeng Guofan, senior Qing official who used Western technology to build China's first modern dockyards and arsenals. The province also abounds with beautiful forests and mountains, and is home to several ethnic groups. The province's rich tourism resources have been of great benefit to its inhabitants.

Zhangjiajie is a world natural heritage site famous for its peaks and valleys covered in lush forests, as well as its wide choice of hotels, restaurants and souvenir shops built by local farmers under government supervision. The Baizhangxia (one-hundred-zhang canyon -- 1 zhang about 3 meters) Hotel has 200 standard rooms with a full range of facilities and services. Its proprietor, Qu Meiyun, formerly a worker in the local forest park, now has assets of ten-million-yuan.

Private Economy Burgeoning in Hunan

The Sundance Company is a private garment producer on the outskirts of Changsha City. Its president Luo Wenliang, now in his 30s, worked as salesman at a small local garment factory before founding his own business in 1989. Now the company's men's and sports wear sells across China, earning 200 million yuan annually.

The technical level of the company's workshops and production management stands comparison with those of joint ventures in far more developed cities. Recently its sales center shifted to Beijing, and its design center to Paris. Enterprising Luo Wenliang is keen to advance his company to world level.

Adjacent to Sundance is another garment corporation, Wangbuliao (never forget), which is also aimed at urban professionals. Its founder Luo Meiyuan is an elegant, self-assured lady used to a farmerette. When Luo set up a tailor's shop in 1984, all she had was a sewing machine. She has since expanded the business into a company with eight world advanced production lines that operate on imported technology, and a workforce of over 1,000. Her products are distributed throughout the nation. Impressed by her success, many managers of large state-owned enterprises have come to consult her on running a businesse.

It is perhaps no wonder that the competing Luos are sister and brother. According to Luo Meiyuan, the elder sister, they worked as partners before separating in 1993 owing to a disagreement on management methods. Competition between them calls for an annual advertising investment of more than 20 million yuan by both companies, but provides incentive to make constant improvements. "Competition is the motivating force of progress. It proves that splitting up was the right decision in," says Mrs. Luo.

Private businesses have been encouraged by the Chinese government in recent years, and are growing at an amazing speed. During the NPC and CPPCC sessions earlier this year many of the newly elected delegates and deputies who spoke at the meeting came from the private sector. Sundance and Wangbuliao are of a medium size, but many private companies in Hunan, such as Broad Air-Conditioning Company and Sany Heavy Industry Co., Ltd., are large and prominent. This legion of private businesses across the province makes significant contributions to the local treasury.

A Thriving Rural Area

Driving along the expressway, I passed jumbo billboards on either side of the road, and saw the white, multi-story residences of local farmers beyond the lush groves. Advertisements for China Telecom are everywhere, even outlying villages. It is evident that this hilly province is embracing all that defines China's new epoch -- modernization, IT and the market economy.

As early as 50 years ago Mao Zedong had made the famous remark that the biggest problem to be resolved by China is its farmers. Today, issues concerning farmers are still high on state leaders' agenda. In view of the vast numbers of rural dwellers -- 900 million out of a national total population of 1.3 billion -- and their poor education, they continue to be a source of great concern. Hunan's agricultural population of 65 million means that it faces tough challenges as regards its rural economy.

On hearing that I am from the eastern China coastal province of Jiangsu, the official in charge of agriculture that I am interviewing glows with pride, stating: "Though our countryside is less developed than southern Jiangsu's, it has overtaken your northern areas." I was initially skeptical at this comparison, but was later convinced.

I visited the Aiping Group, an automated pig farm that feeds, waters and cleans the pens of a total of 5,000 hogs, in Hengdong County. It operates on a biological cycle whereby all piggery refuse is used as fish food, thus avoiding pollution. 

The group's president, Liu Aiping, is a strapping farmer. After taking correspondence courses in animal husbandry, Liu now knows the techniques of disease prevention and control, forage composition and breed upgrading. He has assets of over 10 million yuan, and has helped some 3,000 local farmers to raise their living standards by establishing industrialized pig farms.

In Hengdong County's Xintang Town I visited the Wild Duck Vacation Village. On a lake ringed by mountains drifted a dozen tour boats, while tourists from neighboring cities fished on the shore, some sipping home-made wine or eating snacks from the local restaurant.

Luo Guohua, the proprietor, initially cultivated fish in the lake, and later kept cash animals on its banks. They added to the aesthetics and could also be butchered and eaten. Luo gradually transformed the whole area into a scenic holiday resort.

Luo is just one of many myriad farming entrepreneurs in the province. The industrial structure in Hunan's rural areas today is incredibly complex. Farmers familiar with the market economy run large-sized cultivation and processing businesses. A full six million young and middle-aged rural dwellers go to work in cities out of the province, leaving their parents, wives and children at home. The elderly usually work on their small patches of land, while women plant cash crops, or work in local enterprises.

The non-agricultural sector generates half of the province's rural income. One third of Hunan farmers live a comfortable life, and although five percent of the rural population still lacks sufficient food and clothes, this represents just one fourth of what it was ten years ago. Compared to its inland neighbors Hunan is in the fast lane.

Transport and medical care issues, however, obstruct Hunan's rural economic growth. In order not to waste the limited farmland in this populous province, farmers have traditionally built their homes on hills. A lack of planning has resulted in these residences being scattered randomly about, linked only by dirt roads that are a quagmire in wet weather. With a restricted water supply, most rural households have neither bathroom nor indoor toilet, and slop in the outdoor lavatories can easily seep down into subterranean springs, causing a serious health hazard. 

There is still, therefore, a great deal for the Hunan people to achieve before they can be more proud of themselves than of Chairman Mao.