Strolling in the Pantang village, a small village in Yiwu City
of east China's Zhejiang
Province, visitors would be struck by its neatness, which is
deviated from the garbage-smothered stereotype of China's
countryside.
A 52-year-old farmer, Liu Bixiang, is the street cleaner of
Pantang. Her job, which is still novel in the country's rural
areas, is to keep the village clean by emptying the wastebin in
front of each household.
"Random littering was a bad habit that has been followed for
thousands of years in rural areas. Usually you can see garbage
piling at mountain foot or riverside," said Professor Huang Yiwei
with the Zhejiang Institute of Environmental Science.
More than 1,000 street cleaners like Liu in the rural area of
Yiwu or about 10,000 ashmen in the countryside of Zhejiang Province
are now disposing of trash. The trash are first transferred to
refuse collection station in towns and then to refuse treatment
plant in the county for incineration and landfilling.
Traditionally seen as underdeveloped and self-sufficient,
China's rural areas have now begun to enjoy some of the services
that used to be seen as exclusive for the urbanites, as the country
is committed to build "new rural areas" in the coming five years,
in a bid to bridge the gap between the urbanites and farmers in
living standards.
Apart from street cleaners, the rural area in Zhejiang will, as
well, witness more salespersons in chained supermarkets and stores
as the province aims to spread them over all of its townships and
villages in three years.
"I get 700 yuan (about US$84) a month by working six to seven
hours a day," Liu told Xinhua, saying that if she works in the
city, she would as well find a similar job since she has neither
favorable educational background nor specialities.
"As a cleaner, I can make more money here than in the cities,
because the salary is similar and I have to spend more in the
cities," Liu said. "My husband used to work in the cities. But now
he has come back and become a cleaner for the neighboring Jindu
village."
The initiative of building new rural areas has not only riveted
farmers working in the cities to come back but also lured town
folks to go to the countryside.
In addition to provision of financial subsidies, the local
governments also invite public bidding for garbage disposal.
"A real-estate management company in the Yuhang City is bidding
for providing sanitary services for several nearby villages," said
Lu Shouliang, head of environmental protection bureau of
Yuhang.
(Xinhua News Agency October 27, 2005)