Shenzhen's 'can-do' drive forges new ground

The good life

Wu Jinqing, 80, said the good life he is now living in Yumin village, in Shenzhen's Luohu district, was unimaginable when he was a child.

The barren fishing hamlet that Wu grew up in is now one of the richest villages in China, with high-rise apartments and modern security systems. He earns around 600,000 yuan a year from his share of the rental income from properties owned by the village.

"We used to live on our fishing boats and feared typhoons the most because we couldn't stay on the boat when they hit," Wu said.

Wu was around 10 years old when he traveled with his parents on a 5-meter by 2-meter fishing boat from Dongguan, north of Shenzhen, in search of better fishing spots. The boat was their entire livelihood and Wu's family had only 2 square meters of room to live in because the rest of the boat was filled with fishing equipment.

Yumin village is near the northern border of Hong Kong. "At night, villagers could see the city lights from Hong Kong. Modernity felt so close that we could reach out and grab it, yet it was so far away," said Huang Xingyan, the deputy general manager of Yufeng Asset Holdings, the village's property manager.

The village's fortunes changed dramatically in 1978. Thanks to flexible pilot policies, villagers began conducting limited business with Hong Kong, and soon organized transport lines to support Yumin's booming fish farms and manufacturing industries.

By the early 1980s, villagers had televisions, fridges, stereos and electric cookers - all luxuries at the time. While other Chinese citizens earned around 900 yuan a year, Yumin villagers were earning more than 10,000 yuan, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

In 1992, Yumin villagers experimented with community management by forming Yufeng. Each villager then became a shareholder in the company. Shenzhen's economic boom saw demand for rental properties soar, and Huang said the villagers all receive hefty dividends each year.

Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Party Central Committee, visited the village in December 2012 and expressed his interest in its development and living standards. Xi also asked the villagers to continue their reforms and innovate to improve their lives.

Since then, the village has finished building a 430 sq m day care center for the elderly and implemented cellphone scanning and smart cameras to register and keep track of visitors and improve security, Huang added.

Wu lives in a comfortable, 120 sq m apartment with his wife, and the money he has earned helped fund his three sons' education and businesses. "Without reform and opening-up, we would not be able to enjoy the good life we have now," he said.