Turning a poor rural village into a model for environmental sustainability
China’s rural areas are falling behind; The economic boom in the cities isn’t being heard in the countryside
Times Colonist (Victoria)
Sunday, June 24, 2007
Page: D2
Section: Comment
Byline: Cam MacMurchy
Column: Cam MacMurchy
Source: Special to Times Colonist
My cab driver pulled up to Beijing West Railway Station around 4 p.m. I put my luggage through security and began looking around for a waiting lounge prior to my 4:30 departure to a city I had never even heard of. My ticket said Beijing to Gucheng, which is a small town in Hubei province in central China. It’s also known as the middle of nowhere.
Gucheng is definitely remote, but my final destination would take me one step further. To get there, I would have to take a 40-minute van ride from Gucheng’s train station to the even more remote village of Wushan.
We arrived in Gucheng the following day. I hauled my luggage down a couple of stairs and waited as the train pulled away. I crossed the rickety tracks and stepped over broken concrete before I walked through a deformed gate and out onto the street. The Gucheng train station doesn’t even have an arrivals area. It was as though the train stopped by the street and passengers quickly piled into vans or walked away.
Wushan, unfortunately, is much too small for a hotel. The village has a little over 1,000 residents, most of whom survive on about $275 a year. Our sleeping quarters, shared with a small group of journalists from Beijing, would be in a government guesthouse.
Foreign media attention often focuses on the thriving nightlife and business opportunities in Shanghai, the glittering skyscrapers in Guangzhou or the political power being amassed in Beijing.
The transformation of China’s east-coast cities is vast, and undoubtedly residents are enjoying drastic improvements in their living standards.
But despite these feel-good stories, the countryside is being left behind — way behind.
We met with Communist party cadres in Wushan, who explained that though medical insurance for villagers is only $1.50 per year, even paying that fee could sometimes prove difficult for the poverty-ridden villagers. The insurance covers about 60 per cent of their medical expenses, meaning the rest of the money for treatment has to be paid by the patient.
It was explained to me that a simple operation could still consume a lifetime’s savings. The irony of villagers being forced to pay exorbitant medical fees in a supposedly communist country didn’t go unnoticed.
I walked through the beautiful streets of Wushan, flanked on all sides by lush greenery with a small stream going through the village centre. I stepped into a couple of rural homes, some which didn’t even have four walls.
As the sun was setting I stuck my head into what seemed like a vacant house; inside a man was sitting on his couch in the dark. He didn’t have any electricity and lived in a concrete room with a large door open to the elements. About 750 million people in China — roughly 70 per cent of its population — live in conditions like this, or close to them.
Fortunately, we weren’t in Wushan just to observe peasant life. We were actually there for a good news story, one which we might hear a lot more about in the future.
The Beijing Green Cross (a Chinese non-governmental organization not affiliated with the international one), led by Sun Jun, went into Wushan about three years ago to turn the formerly dirty village into an environmentally friendly tourist spot. At the time, litter was strewn in the streams and garbage was everywhere.
"We have to learn to take care of our environment," said Sun. "We can not be a developed country if we don’t take care of our surroundings." And somehow he has been able to convince the villagers to buy into it.
Wushan now has solar-powered street lights, new environmentally friendly irrigation systems and compost piles.
Villagers have been planting trees and divide their garbage into categories ready for recycling. A town square has been built, where we were treated to dance and musical performances by some of the children.
It has also taken one of its core industries — 100-per-cent organic green tea — and is using it to build the town’s tea culture.
There is now a tea temple, and the tea ceremonies held there are becoming famous in the area. The result of all this, combined with the region’s stunning landscape, has been more visitors and higher incomes for residents, not to mention a new-found pride in their village.
Our group stayed in a renovated government house that night. Although the village is now environmentally friendly, it remains very poor. We were fed the same food four meals in a row— beans, tomato and egg soup, fatty pork, roast pumpkin, chicken soup and a few other dishes.
The sleeping arrangements were comfortable, although I spent most of my night swatting at flies and mosquitoes.
One of the biggest challenges facing China — if not the biggest — is improving the incomes and living conditions for rural residents. President Hu Jintao has been clear that narrowing the widening income gap between rural and urban workers is his priority. If he fails to do so, it could lead to further unrest and threaten the party’s hold on power.
A quick trip to rural China shows that there is a long way to go. But through efforts like those of Sun Jun, there is reason for optimism.
Cam MacMurchy is a Victoria journalist working in China.
cam.macmurchy@gmail.com
Idnumber: 200706240027
Edition: Final
Story Type: Column
Length: 891 words
