Rural Housing Project Changes Landscapes and Lives

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  XIBAIPO in Hebei Province wasa small village of some 100people, but became a focusof national attention in the1940s. Local farmers were staunch Communist supporters. The rolling TaihangMountains to the west and broad HutuoRiver on its south side provided a naturaldefense for this hard-working community that always nurtured abundant harvests. As the revolutionary strongholdsin Hebei and neighboring provinces converged with the growing league of Communist territories, Xibaipo was selectedto be the new command center of theCommunist Party of China in 1948.
  
  The Last CPC Rural CommandCenter Before National Victory
  
  In May 1947 the CPC Central Committee Work Committee moved to Xibaipo from Yan’an. In July it convened anational land conference, which adoptedthe Land Law Outline. Accordingly landreforms were unfurled in Communistcontrolled areas, over a period of oneyear distributing plots to lOO millionpeasants and consequently winning theirfull support for the People’s LiberationArmy, which immediately saw a big leapin enlistment.
  Shijiazhuang was liberated on November 19,1947, connecting two liberatedareas-Jin-Cha-Ji, which straddled Hebei, Chahar and Shanxi provinces, andJin-Ji-Lu-Yu, which encompassed partsof Shanxi, Hebei, Shandong and Henanprovinces. On May 26, 1948 the CPCCentral Committee and the PLA Headquarters, both headed by Mao Zedong,moved to Xibaipo, turning the isolatedhamlet into the new nerve center of theCommunist forces.
  CPC Central Committee offices werehoused in a walled compound of adobehouses, which still stand on the site. Agiant military map hangs in the No.1 Bureau of the Central Military Commission.In times of destitution even things likecolor pencils were a luxury, so the cartographers marked the map with red andblue wool strands. The harsh conditionsnever made a dent in the confidenceand zeal of CPC leaders or rank and filemembers. It is in these Spartan officeswith their sparse supplies that the CPCcaucus planned the Liaoshen, Huaihaiand Pingjin campaigns, which led to thefinal collapse of Kuomintang rule. Premier Zhou Enlai once joked in Xibaipo:"From our command post here we don’tdispatch money, food or soldiers, onlysend many telegraphs, and still we defeatthe Kuomintang."
  In March 1949, when the nationalvictory was in sight, the Second PlenarySession of the Seventh CPC Central Committee was held in the dining room of thecompound. Mao Zedong, who chairedthe meeting, made the famous speechcalling on all Party members to remainmodest and prudent, free from arroganceor rashness on the job, and to preservethe merits of plain living and hard work.Later that month the CPC Central Committee and the PLA Headquarters left Xibaipo for Beijing. In October the People’sRepublic was founded.
  
  New Look for an Old Rural Town
  
  Today Xibaipo is a town and its hall mark adobe shanties, excepting thoseof historic value, have been replaced byswanky two-story buildings of brick andmortar. A new rural housing project hasin recent years put local home construetion under overall community planning,facilitating the operation of utilities andmaking more room for modern agriculture and industries.
  In Liangjiagou Village then Shengping and 4o other families moved intotheir new homes, two-story red-roofedhouses with gray walls, last September.Chen’s is a five-bedroom, 268-squaremeter home, with two sitting rooms, adining room and a garage. "Solar power,gas, heating and tap water, it is as goodas a city home," bragged Chen. "Pride ofhouse" is well justified for one who formerly lived in an adobe structure wherethe family had to cope with a leaky roofon rainy days, cook in choking smokeover a coal stove, and trek long distancesto fetch water from well or river.
  The village’s housing project will soonkick off its second stage of construction,which is eagerly anticipated by the localhouseholds still on its long waiting list.In the past the disorderly dispersementof their 85 residences consumed nearly20 hectares of land. In 2005 village cadres proposed to converge househo ldsinto the kind of proximity that wouldmake utility networks possible and significantly improve land use efficiency.
  The idea was warmly embraced byvillagers, for the benefits were obvious. Homes built by the owner typicallyenjoyed a life span of merely 20 years,while those structured by professionalteams who following strict national/regional codes can stand as long as 70years, meaning they are good for a lifetime, so remarkably economical.
  The village grants a subsidy of RMB5,000 to every villager moving out oftheir old home. In the case of ChenShengping’s family of five that came toRMB 25,000. His old home was evaluated at RMB 8o,ooo. So he eventually paidonly half of the tag price for his RMB200,000 new honm.
  
  Easy Access to Public Services
  
  China Resources Hope Town is themore ambitious housing project in Xibaipo. On completion this July it willaccommodate the combined 253 households of three villages. The two-storyhouses in this neighborhood will take up15.3 hectares, 8.3 hectares down fromthe land footprint used by their currenthomes.
  Excited over the prospect of movinginto a larger and more decent home, WuZhushan takes a walk to the construetion site everyday to monitor the workprocess. His village of Huojiagou is oneof the three to be relocated to the HopeTown. "We will soon find ourselves inbig, clean and well-lighted rooms without kangs (heatable brick beds)," hesaid with a grin. Actually the project willinject quite a few long awaited comfortsand conveniences into the daily lives ofits occupants.
  The residential area has a hospital,a kindergarten, a police station, a bankoutlet, a farmers’ training center and a farm produce market. All these facilities,homes and public spaces feature energyefficient and environment-friendly designs and materials, with high resistanceto earthquakes and potent methods ofheat preservation. A biogas pool willsupply local kitchens with methane fuel.Unlike conventional pits of this kind, thisone is designed to lie beneath a vegetablegreenhouse, which saves land while preserving the heat the pit needs for producing biogas-heat unavailable in northernChina during the long winter.
  "Tap water, cooking gas, a school forkids, doctors stationed within the village, and paved roads to every doorway: Icannot ask for more," said Wn Zhushan.The view of village authorities is that newrural housing projects are a significantstep in optimizing resources and extending public services to the backward, longneglected countryside. Wang Pingdong,deputy chief of Xibaipo Town, reflects,"When rural communities are dispersed,the government allotment for them isspread too thin, sprinkled over them likepepper. Infrastructure and facilities haveto be built in every one of them, increasing costs, lowering efficiency and causingredundancy. These new rural housingprojects resolve these problems."
  
  Give One Fish or Teach One Fishing
  
  "In the past all the roads in the village were rocky dirt paths that defeatedall motor vehicles. The wheelbarrow wasthe only means to move cargo," recalledChen Shengping. "Now eight-meter-wideblacktop is being laid. We will soon seecars 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 expansioninto the countryvside. In China ResourcesHope Town the best of both worlds is thegoal; sections are reserved for organicand biological farming while traditionalplantations are also preserved. TheStage-I project includes a 5.5-hectareapple orchard, a chicken farm and a pigfarm.
  "The chicken farm has a breeding baseand a feed center. Formerly local ehickeufarms had to buy chicks in Beijing or other cities. The long journey hiked both thecost and fatality rate. Now farmers can’buy local’. The feed center supplies themnot only with highly nutritious productsbut also professional consultations, helping villagers to raise prime-quality fowlseconomically and effectively," said SongYibo, deputy general manager of theHope Town project.
  In partnership with the AgriculturalUniversity of Hebei, the China Resources Group conducted a soil test inHope Town, and picked an apple varietythat fit the local environment. The company entered into contracts with localfarmers, offered technical support tothose who would grow this apple, andpromised to purchase the yields whenthe trees began to bear fruit. So far generous portions of the surrouuding landhave been planted with apple seedlings."This variety is sweet, high-yielding,and decently priced. And with ChinaResources ready to buy the harvest fromthe fields, we enjoy a low risk business,"said Chen Meilian, a contracted orchardkeeper.
  "In the beginning the companymakes an investment designed tolaunch the program. When the startupenters the operational phase, this business model will bring about profoundchanges to community life around it,"claims Song Yibo. "It is a fnndamentalshift of a classic kind-teaching onehow to fish rather thou merely offeringone a fish."
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