“Actually the compensation did not even cover the labor costs on the house building,” Liu grumbles. In addition to the 110,000 yuan compensation, Liu spent over 200,000 yuan – a very considerable sum for a family whose source of income is vegetable cultivation.

    Though moaning about this thing and that, Liu finds it hard to keep the smile off his face, and it is not long before he brings up his own estimate of what his newly built house would fetch on the market – one million yuan! Never had he dreamed of owning such an asset.

    “My four-story house has a floorage of 440 square meters. So, based on prices of comparable housing, it’s worth nearly 700,000 yuan. Add the value of the plot – 360,000 – and we’re already topping a million,” says Liu with a grin, adding that most of the houses are bought by people in Shanghai, because of their proximity to the city.

    An agricultural county in the past, Jiashan has gradually shifted towards industrial development over the past ten years. However, rural areas nearby mainly depend on regional agricultural products such as greenhouse vegetables and cut flowers.

    With such a gentle pace of change, Liu Aiguo, a farmer all his life, has always felt at ease about his daily life. Since vegetable cultivation is the main source of household income, what he cared about was how his greenhouse vegetables were growing, all he wished for was that he wouldn’t get squeezed too hard on price by the produce dealers. But nowadays, Liu realizes that the new house is not the only change brought in on the high-speed railway: it means rapid change to his hometown, and his life is buoyed by such changes as never before.

    Liu keeps a watchful eye on new urban construction in Jiashan. With the operation of the high-speed railway, Jiashan has launched plans for a new district covering an area of 12 square kilometers. Currently, there are nearly 50 projects under construction, all of them within striking distance of Jiashan South Railway Station. For this reason, when building his house, Liu deliberately put in an extra, independent entrance and set aside some space with a view to rental in the future. “Right now there are no businesses here so it’s hard to rent out. But once the new district gives a kick-start to development, the house should let without any problem,” says Liu, brimming confidence.

    Furthermore, the local government plans to build an international hot spring resort at nearby Dayun to cater to the surge of tourists riding in on the railway. Liu has plans for that too, “Since more people will come, perhaps I’ll start up a little souvenir business.”

    Liu looks over towards the high-speed railway and the half-hectare of land that has supported his unchanging way of life for over a decade. Change has already arrived, and for this farmer at least, it seems that this is only the beginning.