Source: CCTV.com

12-10-2008 11:03

Special Report:   30 Years of Changes

30 years of reform in China have also had an enormous impact on the country's vast rural areas. In fact, the earliest blueprint for change arose from farmers wishing to improve their lives in a tiny village in Anhui Province. In today's part of our BizChina 360 series on 3 decades of reform and opening up, Qi Tianxing shows us how life has changed dramatically in another village, that's Sunzhuang, in central Henan Province.

Zhang Xiuying, one Sunzhuang villager

Zhang Xiuying is preparing lunch for her family. She is happy with her daily life. She's able to take on some work on the farm, cook for the family and take care of her grandchildren.

Zhang Xiuying, one Sunzhuang villager said "I'll cook rice and meat."

Now the family can eat whatever they want, but 30 years ago, that was impossible. Like farmers across the country, people in Sunzhuang Village worked for production teams, basic farming units of the time. They handed in what they'd grown to the team, and got allotments of grain in return. And this amount was the same, however much or little each farmer worked. That mean most farmers had little incentive to till the land. Poor soil conditions and the effect of natural disasters led to a very low standard of living. Many lacked the most basic items for survival.

Zhang Xiuying said "After work I picked leaves from elm trees and cooked soup with them. I only earned 6 yuan a month at that time. "

Xu Guizhen´s family was even poorer, they had to beg for their bread.

Xu Guizhen, one Sunzhuang villager said "We starved in those days, when people worked for the production team. I went to other places, begging for food with which to feed my child."

Starving farmers had to find a way to change their lives. And 18 of them in Xiaogang Village of Fengyang County in Anhui Province came up with what were revolutionary ideas for the time. In 1978, they secretly carved up farmland and allotted them to households. Each household was allowed to keep what they grew on their own piece of land. This sounds simple, but what happened in Xiaogang Village was a bold step towards rural economic reforms. The scheme was later promoted across the country by the Communist Party of China after its Third Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee. The scheme was officially established in 1982, giving a big boost to agricultural production.

Xu Guizhen said "After the farmland was divided up and handed over to households, we had enough food and never went begging again."

Zhang Xiuying said "Life got better after we got our piece of farmland. We grew enough grain to feed the family, we didn't need to buy grain anymore."