Yumin village in Luohu stands as epitome of Shenzhen's remarkable development

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In late August, arriving at the Yumin village in Luohu, Shenzhen, you can see a modern, garden-like community with developed public facilities, a kindergarten and a nursing home for senior villagers.

A Party to people service center, a community park and a village history hall are also being renovated.

"Were it not for the implementation of the reform and opening-up policy, and the founding of the special economic zone in Shenzhen, these places are all bogs, so how could we live happily as we are today?" said Deng Zhibiao, 79, a former village head.

Over the past 40 years, Shenzhen has seen remarkable development. And Yumin village is an epitome of that "rags-to-riches" process.

The village was the first in the country to see its per capita disposable income surge above 10,000 yuan ($1,465), along with the founding of one among the first batch of community joint-stock companies. It was also one of the first villages in Shenzhen to finish urbanization transformation and the piloted reform of joint-stock companies in the city.

In the future, the village will become a smart 5G community where 431 affairs related to the government can be processed on the internet or in its Party to people service center.

"Before, life was hard. Six people in our family lived in a 20-square-meter room in the center of a farm, and there was not even a flat road," Deng said.

The earliest settlers in the village were fishers from Dongguan, Guangdong province. They lived on boats at sea. After they settled on the land, they lived in thatched shelters and earned their living by catching fish.

After the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone was set up on Aug. 26, 1980, the village started its large-scale construction. The villagers bought four trucks to deliver building materials for construction sites, earning their "first barrel of gold," according to Deng. Later, the village attracted investors to establish factories and restaurants.

In 1981, the village invested 700,000 yuan building 33 residential buildings; in 1992, the Yufeng Industrial Company was set up with villagers forming its board of directors.

In the late 1990s, the villagers built more buildings to rent them out to migrant workers. Despite the mess caused by the inflow of newcomers, the villagers still needed to make their rent payments.

Deng Guohua, 40, recalled his childhood: "The environment was dirty, disorderly and bad. But the villagers were hell-bent on expanding their buildings, so some buildings were called 'handshake' buildings as they became so close to each other."

In 2001, the village started its urban renovation projects. All villagers moved to 12 high-rise buildings that were finished three years later. They collectively entrusted property management companies with renting out their surplus apartment houses, so management became more orderly.

In 2014, the village started its joint-stock company pilot reforms, and in 2016, the reform plan won the approval of all villagers. From then on, the villagers started to work with real estate developers to build commercial houses on their land, which increased the farmers' income many times over.

Nowadays, every family in the village earns more than 600,000 yuan, on average, through renting houses each year, and their company assets have surged more than 20 times.

Wu Songqiu, president of the Yufeng Industrial Company, said, "After realizing moderately well-off life materially, the village will pursue that in spiritual civilization."

This year, Luohu tasked the village with making itself a demonstration zone for good grassroots governance.

Now, the Communist Party of China's village committee has held a monthly meeting that involves representatives of almost all residents. In the meeting, the authorities listen to complaints and suggestions of the people, and there are also heated discussions on possible solutions.

The engagement of the people's congress, the Party, the residents' committee and the property management company helps to synergize different powers so that they can unite to work for the benefits of the people, said Li Jing, Party chief of the Yucun neighborhood.

The people actively take part in the deliberations and discussions on public affairs regarding the community, and most important affairs are settled through direct voting.

After the village is completely covered by the 5G network, its governance will be based on cloud computing and big data so that its overall efficiency and stability will be greatly improved.

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