Rural Housing Project Changes Landscapes and Lives

New Look for an Old Rural Town

Today Xibaipo is a town and its hallmark adobe shanties, excepting those of historic value, have been replaced by swanky two-story buildings of brick and mortar. A new rural housing project has in recent years put local home construction under overall community planning, facilitating the operation of utilities and making more room for modern agriculture and industries.

In Liangjiagou Village Chen Shengping and 40 other families moved into their new homes, two-story red-roofed houses with gray walls, last September. Chen's is a five-bedroom, 268-square-meter home, with two sitting rooms, a dining room and a garage. "Solar power, gas, heating and tap water, it is as good as a city home," bragged Chen. "Pride of house" is well justified for one who formerly lived in an adobe structure where the family had to cope with a leaky roof on rainy days, cook in choking smoke over a coal stove, and trek long distances to fetch water from well or river.

The village's housing project will soon kick off its second stage of construction, which is eagerly anticipated by the local households still on its long waiting list. In the past the disorderly dispersement of their 85 residences consumed nearly 20 hectares of land. In 2005 village cadres proposed to converge househo lds into the kind of proximity that would make utility networks possible and significantly improve land use efficiency.

The idea was warmly embraced by villagers, for the benefits were obvious. Homes built by the owner typically enjoyed a life span of merely 20 years, while those structured by professional teams who following strict national/regional codes can stand as long as 70 years, meaning they are good for a life time, so remarkably economical.

The village grants a subsidy of RMB 5,000 to every villager moving out of their old home. In the case of Chen Shengping's family of five that came to RMB 25,000. His old home was evaluated at RMB 80,000. So he eventually paid only half of the tag price for his RMB 200,000 new home.

Easy Access to Public Services

China Resources Hope Town is the more ambitious housing project in Xibaipo. On completion this July it will accommodate the combined 253 households of three villages. The two-story houses in this neighborhood will take up 15.3 hectares, 8.3 hectares down from the land footprint used by their current homes.

Excited over the prospect of moving into a larger and more decent home, Wu Zhushan takes a walk to the construction site everyday to monitor the work process. His village of Huojiagou is one of the three to be relocated to the Hope Town. "We will soon find ourselves in big, clean and well-lighted rooms without kangs (heatable brick beds)," he said with a grin. Actually the project will inject quite a few long awaited comforts and conveniences into the daily lives of its occupants.

The residential area has a hospital, a kindergarten, a police station, a bank outlet, a farmers' training center and a farm produce market. All these facilities, homes and public spaces feature energy-efficient and environment-friendly designs and materials, with high resistance to earthquakes and potent methods of heat preservation. A biogas pool will supply local kitchens with methane fuel. Unlike conventional pits of this kind, this one is designed to lie beneath a vegetable greenhouse, which saves land while preserving the heat the pit needs for producing biogas – heat unavailable in northern China during the long winter.

"Tap water, cooking gas, a school for kids, doctors stationed within the village, and paved roads to every doorway: I cannot ask for more," said Wu Zhushan. The view of village authorities is that new rural housing projects are a significant step in optimizing resources and extending public services to the backward, long neglected countryside. Wang Pingdong, deputy chief of Xibaipo Town, reflects, "When rural communities are dispersed, the government allotment for them is spread too thin, sprinkled over them like pepper. Infrastructure and facilities have to be built in every one of them, increasing costs, lowering efficiency and causing redundancy. These new rural housing projects resolve these problems."

Give One Fish or Teach One Fishing

"In the past all the roads in the village were rocky dirt paths that defeated all motor vehicles. The wheelbarrow was the only means to move cargo," recalled Chen Shengping. "Now eight-meter-wide blacktop is being laid. We will soon see cars coming to our doors."

The new rural housing projects underway are designed to improve both the living conditions and incomes of farmers, both critical elements of "the good life" that motivates China's urban expansion into the countryside. In China Resources Hope Town the best of both worlds is the goal; sections are reserved for organic and biological farming while traditional plantations are also preserved. The Stage-I project includes a 5.5-hectare apple orchard, a chicken farm and a pig farm.

"The chicken farm has a breeding base and a feed center. Formerly local chicken farms had to buy chicks in Beijing or other cities. The long journey hiked both the cost and fatality rate. Now farmers can 'buy local'. The feed center supplies them not only with highly nutritious products but also professional consultations, helping villagers to raise prime-quality fowls economically and effectively," said Song Yibo, deputy general manager of the Hope Town project.

In partnership with the Agricultural University of Hebei, the China Resources Group conducted a soil test in Hope Town, and picked an apple variety that fit the local environment. The company entered into contracts with local farmers, offered technical support to those who would grow this apple, and promised to purchase the yields when the trees began to bear fruit. So far generous portions of the surrounding land have been planted with apple seedlings. "This variety is sweet, high-yielding, and decently priced. And with China Resources ready to buy the harvest from the fields, we enjoy a low risk business," said Chen Meilian, a contracted orchard keeper.

"In the beginning the company makes an investment designed to launch the program. When the startup enters the operational phase, this business model will bring about profound changes to community life around it," claims Song Yibo. "It is a fundamental shift of a classic kind – teaching one how to fish rather than merely offering one a fish."