Financially successful migrant workers aid in China's rural revival

"Urban life does not belong to me, as my roots are in the countryside," said 37-year-old farmer Li Qiyong, who seems no longer to feel upset over not being able to stay in cities.

Li, who lives in southwest China's Sichuan Province, returned home four years ago after he had worked as a concrete factory worker, pedicab man and vegetable vendor for more than ten years.

"When I worked outside, I only had an annual income of 2,000 yuan (about 250 U.S. dollars), but now my earnings have hit 50,000 yuan (6,200 U.S. dollars) from the chicken farm," he said.

In the late 1980s, rural farmers like Li began to go to cities for jobs as migrant workers. Currently, migrant workers in China total approximate 140 million, most of whom work in sectors such as construction engineering and transport with salaries much lower than those of urban residents, statistics from China's Ministry of Labor and Social Security show.

However, in the past few years, as the central government has taken more substantial measures to increase farmers' income and develop agriculture, some migrant workers have begun returning to rural areas.

Liu Shouan, a farmer in Guang'an City, the hometown of former senior Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping, also had the experience of working as a migrant worker.

In 2002, Liu returned to his home village and built a hotel for tourists which now brings him around 10,000 yuan (some 1200 U.S. dollars) a year.

"Now, as the government has mapped out the plan to build a new socialist countryside, rural areas will have more development opportunities," he said, expecting more tourists to his hometown in the years ahead.

Liu's village attracts more than 100,000 tourists from both at home and abroad, and the per-capita annual income in the village has increased from 2,600 yuan (about 320 U.S. dollars) to over 4,000 yuan (some 490 U.S. dollars), according to the head of the village.

"It is conducive to rural development for the portion of migrant workers who have had their knowledge increased and skills trained during work to go back home to make a living," said Zhang Xiaoshan, director of the Rural Development Research Institute under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Zhang said migrant workers will play an indispensable role in building up a new socialist countryside characterized by rural prosperity and civilization as their main earnings in cities go to the countryside and thus improve rural life and production.

To encourage more migrant workers to return home, local governments in Sichuan, Hubei and Jiangxi provinces in southwestern, centrai and eastern China have built special development areas for farmers.

In the Yushui District of Xinyu City in Jiangxi, the number of factories established by farmers has reached up to 200, which provides lots of job opportunities for locals.

Guan Xinping, a professor of sociology at the prestigious Tianjin-based Nankai University, said the rural economy has new development opportunities as China has pledged to spend more in rural areas for its revival.

Local governments should inspire farmers to enrich themselves in terms of policy and financial support so as to attract even more migrant workers in cities to return and help develop their hometowns.

"The objective of building a new socialist countryside is to make us farmers live a still better life," said Li Qiyong, adding that he wants to raise fish in addition to chickens in the coming years.

Source: Xinhua