Cijiawa-Socialist New Countryside.docVIP

Cijiawa-Socialist New Countryside 　　IN this village everyone over 60gets an old-age pension and farm-ing is no longer the only way ofmaking a living.People use ATMsmart cards to draw out their wages,year-end bonus or stock market divi-dends.There are no overnight mil-lionaires here and no abject poor.Thevillage has trodden the road of prosper-ity for all.It is Caijiawa Village,in themountainous Miyun County northeastof Beijing. 　　Caijiawa (population 2,600 in 800households) is four kilometers east ofthe county seat and 500 meters fromthe Mujiayu exit of the Beijing-CheugdeExpressway.Its 1,333-hectare area isbounded by mountains to the east andsouth,and by the Chaohe River to thewest.Despite being rich in natural re-sources,prior to 2003 Caijiawas econo-my was very weak: a number of village-run enterprises suffered heavy lossesand collapsed like dominoes.Mostvillagers just scraped by on their littlepatch of farmland.During the droughtyears from 2OOl to 2003,not a singlegrain was reaped from the parchedfields.The housing was old - datingback to the 1950s in some cases - andin poor repair; the potholed roads werea total mess,covering you in dust onsunny days and in mud on rainy days,as a local saying puts it. 　　But within the short span of sevenyears,Caijiawa has been transformed.Ithas emerged from poverty as an affluentcommunity whose wealth is known farand wide.Today,Caijiawa looks morelike a town than a village and you haveto look hard to see any large stretch offarmland.But the more townified feelcomes without the rush and noise ofthe city.In its industrialization and ur-banization process,an coo-socialist newcountryside has taken shape. 　　Gone are the cramped single-storyhouses.In their place stand spaciousand bright new multi-stories.Beauti-ful garden communities have sprungup,providing 2oo,ooo square metersof living accommodation.Each dwell-ing comes ready to occupy,with fit-out,flooring,lighting and decoration all paidfor by the local government. 　　The