Connecting villages, to benefit all
As one of China's most populous provinces and a major agricultural center, Henan has been concentrating on rural highway construction over the past several years, bringing a new look to the province's vast countryside.
The rapid development of rural highways not only solves the transportation problem that has troubled rural residents for thousands of years, but also gives a great impetus to the construction of "New Countryside" and "Harmonious Society."
Zhang Dawei (center, on wooden stool), vice-governor of Henan Province, talks with local rural residents to know about the progress of rural highway construction. |
Benefits
The expansion of the rural highway network has contributed to a balanced development of urban and rural areas.
The highways create convenient commodity and information channels between the cities and the countryside, stimulating economic development and consumers' expenditures in rural areas.
It is estimated that an investment of 100 million yuan in the roads will directly or indirectly bring about 316 million yuan in gross domestic product (GDP).
The improved transportation conditions have greatly rationalized the production structure in rural areas.
In many places, market-oriented modern agriculture with high added value has replaced traditional agriculture. A batch of new production bases, such as vegetable, animal husbandry, poultry breeding and forestry bases, have mushroomed as a result.
Jiaozuo, a city in northern Henan Province, has built 106 standardized agricultural production bases and 33,350 hectares of woods for industrial use.
The city has also built a batch of large, standardized cattle farms, with animal husbandry accounting for 42.9 percent of total agricultural output value.
The newly built rural highways have greatly facilitated the exploitation of all kinds of resources in the vast countryside.
Farmers in rural Henan Province buy vegetables and commodities transported by vehicles to their villages. Farmers now can carry their native products to the urban market thanks to the convenient transportation. |
Industries such as tourism, mineral resources and agricultural products transportation have enjoyed a substantial growth with the newly built highways, bringing considerable income to local farmers.
Luanchuan County, for example, received more than 2.69 million tourists in 2005 and achieved a tourist income of 760 million yuan after a new cement highway was built to connect all its major tourism sites.
More than 20 per cent of the county's farmers became rich by engaging themselves in the tourism industry.
With the expansion of rural highways, the abundant mineral resources of coal, iron, copper and aluminium in Xiuwu County's countryside can now be conveniently transported to all parts of the country.
Farmers in the province's mountain areas perhaps benefit most from the rural highway construction.
In the past, such isolated farmers could not carry their native products to the outside world for lack of highways and had to helplessly watch their produce rot away.
They can now sell their native products, such as walnuts, persimmon fruits, hawthorn, wild wood ears, honey and Chinese medicinal material, just in front of their homes.
The developed network of rural highways has attracted a lot of investors from home and abroad to build plants or industrial parks in rural areas.
Foreign investment brought a fundamental change to the traditional economic mode in rural areas and promoted the development of private economic sectors.
Children in the Xixiaochou Village of Mengzhou, Henan Province, go to school along a newly built highway. |
The township now has an industrial park of coke chemicals and a production base of limestone, which have created more than 1,000 jobs for the town's surplus labour force.
In 2006, the town had 12 million yuan in financial revenue, a 50 percent increase from 2005. Farmers' income increased 450 yuan from 2005 on average.
The highways bring a new way of life as well as business opportunities to the farmers, who now have access to the fruits of modern civilization, including the Internet.
"Highways bring fortune and technology to us, and I'm confident our life will be better and better with each passing day," said Ran Donghai, who lives in Rankou Village near the city of Luohe.
Li Xinmin, of Shamo Village near the city of Luoyang, said the village's environment had changed greatly thanks to the newly built highway.
"Many villagers now work hard and focus on production activities with a clear goal of becoming well-off," Li said. "In the past, many of them used to live in idleness all day long."
(China Daily 01/19/2007 page24)
