Parks, books now part of village life

Paved streets, pocket parks, reading rooms and playgrounds are all among facilities that hundreds of thousands of villagers in Hainan province have grown accustomed to.

By 2007, after seven years of effort, the province had improved 7,774 villages - 33.4 percent of the island total - to provide sound environmental and cultural facilities.

According to Chen Xiuyan, director of the provincial office for building civilization, Hainan plans to turn half of its 23,310 villages into eco-friendly settlements by the end of 2010, an effort that will directly benefit some 2.5 million people.