Town's Move Provides New Opportunities

A group of women who were relocated from a village do jobs at a clothing factory in Ameiqituo, Guizhou province. [Chen Yalin/For China Daily]

The relocation of a poor, remote township in a mountainous area of Guizhou province is expected to be finished by the end of this year and help locals get out of poverty and enjoy better public services.

Sanbao, with 6,042 residents of mainly Yi or Miao ethnicity, is located about 46 kilometers from the county seat of Qinglong and connected to it by a steep, winding mountain road.

With its barren land and a weak transportation system, people in Sanbao are poor. The township was listed as one of the 20 poorest townships in Guizhou in 2016.

To lift the township out of poverty, the county government decided in August 2016 to build a new community named Ameiqituo in the county seat's suburban area to resettle all the residents who were living in the mountains.

New buildings were built with features of the ethnic groups to help them adapt. Hospitals, public transportation and schools from kindergarten to high school were built to provide necessary services, the township's deputy Party chief Bai Yang said.

The new community will also include a light industrial park and an agriculture and tourism park, which can offer a combined 1,500 jobs, two-thirds of which are open to relocated villagers, he said.

By the end of July, some 1,160 villagers from about 260 households have moved into the new town, and about 460 villagers have found jobs with the help of the local government, he said.

Resident Chen Hongbin and his wife used to be migrant workers in Zhejiang province. With a combined monthly income of about 4,000 yuan ($590), there was little left at the end of each year because they spent more in the city.

Hearing the news, Chen's family decided to move back. Under the standard of 20 square meters per person, the family of six got an apartment of 120 square meters with four bedrooms and one living room at the end of 2017.

"Now my wife and I work in a clothing factory in the county, with a monthly salary of 2,000 yuan each. My 4-year-old son can also stay with us while going to the county kindergarten," he said.

Bai said a service center was launched to help resettled residents adapt to new lives, but there were still some who didn't want to move.

"The elders are usually attached to their native land," he said. "Most in the township are not well educated, so they worry about making a living in the new place and hesitate."

A team was set up, including returning migrant workers and college graduates, who can explain policies and what they know outside the mountains to encourage them to move, he said.

Chen Hongbin's elder sister, Chen Hongzhen, is one of them. She started a chicken farm in the new community in March after graduating with a junior college degree.

"I know the importance of education. I don't want to see my relatives suffer in poverty because of poor education. Only by moving out can they have a better chance," she said.