Huaxi village in Jiangsu
3 min readHuaxi village in Jiangyin，Jiangsu is a model village in working for common prosperity under socialism and building a new socialist countryside.Its southern Chinese pastoral charm and rich rural life are the two main features that attract outside visitors this beautiful and fertile patch of land is the cradle of Wu culture as well as the place where modern industry and commerce and the rural enterprise were born and prospered in china leading people to call it the number one village under heaven.
The original area of Huaxi Village was only 0.96 square kilometers with a population of over 1，500.A small hardware plant set up in 1969 without fanfare by a villager named Wu Renbao is considered the starting point for the prosperity of the village.This poor southern village with a debt of 250，000 yuan has now become”Huaxi Village group covering 9 major companies and over 60 smaller enterprises with a total economic worth of over 30 billion yuan.This can only be called an economic miracle.
Huaxi Village has adhered to a path of relying on the collective economy and working for common prosperity.Wu Renbao，the veteran Party secretary of the village，did not take a rigid and dogmatic approach to the collective economy he forged a new approach to the development of the collective economy by taking into consideration the political climate and starting from the actual conditions of the village.Wu made the principle atwo-eight split the way for the local residents themselves to accumulate funds and this principle is still followed today two tenths of the year ly bonus goes to the individual and the other eight tenths stays in the group as stock，which pays dividends but may not be sold.During the period between June 2001 and September 2004 Huaxi Village merged with 16 nearby villages under the administrative policy of”merging townships and villages.this expanded the population to 30，000 and the area to 30 square kilometers.Wu then introduced his approach in which the election of village committees and governance of the other 16 participating villages remains in the hands of the individual villages.Five other areas economic regulation，use of cadres，arrangement of labor，welfare benefits and master plan for village development，are all unified.This approach provided for successful inclusion of these 16 villages in the common development of the new greater huaxi Village.In 2005 Huaxi Village had a total sales volume of 30.78 billion yuan，assets of the village level collective economy totaled ll.39 billion yuan and average individual income was 65，000 yuan.
True prosperity means having both material and intellectual prosperity.huaxi Village has paid close attention to both economic development and ethical village governance in accordance with the law.On the basis of every family with their hou every household having their own car，the village provides the conditions for villagers to have full pockets as well as spiritual stimulation.He also launched an education campaign throughout the greater village which also emphasized respect for elders，thus creating an social atmosphere or o called”the six loves”（love for Party，country，Huaxi Village，relatives，friends，and respect for senior citizens and love of children.In the late 1990s Huaxi Village set up the huaxi Special Arts Troupe，which government leaders called，”China s first Rural erformances have become large banquet of cultural and intellectual treats for the people.In addition，the village put up statues representing Eight Immortals cross the sea，”“Summoning Zhuge liang Three Times，”“The Cowherd and thWeaver Girl”and Confucius to meet the needs of economic and social development at different times to teach the villagers through fine traditional Chinese culture.The village now has full range of facilities for cultural and recreational activities including a public space for traditional performance artists，sport grounds，ice-skating rink，Karaoke，discos and movie theaters，providing villagers with a rich cultural life and diverse spare-time activities.
Huaxi Village has become a window for introducing people from China and abroad to China s countryside.Since the village was opened up to the outside world in 1994 nearly a million domestic and foreign tourists a year have been visiting and touring huaxi village and the villagers have been warmly serving them with traditional local dishes such as wonton and meat strips with chives.
