A remote mountain village in southwestern Guizhou Province, called Goushi, meaning dog shit in English, adopted a new auspicious name at the request of 69 villagers.

The provincial public security bureau director Cui Yadong renamed the poverty-stricken village as Jinxin, meaning prosperous and happy, and handed a new name board on January 17, 2012.

The provincial public security bureau director Cui Yadong renamed the poverty-stricken village as Jinxin, meaning prosperous and happy, and handed a new name board yesterday, the Guizhou City News has reported.

The village has 285 inhabitants in 63 households. Per capita income is 2,800 yuan (US$443.52) a year. The village got its old humiliating name because for a long time the place was so inaccessible that only dogs would go there to shit, the paper said.

With 25,000 yuan and 10 tons of cement donated by policemen in the bureau, a road was built last May to link the village with the outside world. But the old name still stuck as a stigma on the minds of villagers.

Last November 69 villagers wrote a petition, bearing their fingerprints, to Duyun City government, asking for a new name for their village, the paper said.

Cui chose "Jinxin" from more than 60 names and the character "Jin" also sounds like police in Chinese, implying a close bond between the villagers and police.

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