YUMIN Village, also known as Fishermen’s Village in Luohu District, faces Hong Kong across the Shenzhen River. It used to be a household name on the mainland in the early 1980s because of its rags-to-riches fairy tale.

    The once ramshackle village, one of the oldest in the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone, was then the envy of all Chinese. This was because it was the first in China to achieve an average household income exceeding 10,000 yuan (US$1,429) in 1981 when the national per capita annual income of urban residents stood at 762 yuan.

    This attracted late leader Deng Xiaoping to visit during his first tour of Shenzhen in 1984, five years after he initiated the reform and opening up. Deng marveled at the modern apartment buildings in the village, saying it was at least 70 years ahead of the rest of China in development. Now a luxurious living area, the village is the epitome of Shenzhen’s economic miracle.

    1979 — A turning point

    Deng Zhibiao, a Yumin native who took office as village head in 1979, was the mastermind behind its remarkable history.

    “Life in the tiny rural place with only a few dozen residents in the old days was miserable,” Deng said. “We lived on fishing. I remember in 1979 we suffered from famine because the harvest was mean.”

    Desperate to seek a better life in the wealthy neighboring British colony, there was a surge in the number of people swimming across the Shenzhen River to enter Hong Kong.

    “Yumin was notorious then,” the 67-year-old said. “Quite a number of city leaders patronized the place to try to curb the rampant illegal emigration.”

    The year of 1979 became a turning point, when Shenzhen City was established.

    Some acute Hong Kong businessmen, sensing “something big was going to happen on the mainland,” began to try their luck in investment in the virgin land.

    Not daring to venture too far, many of them chose to set up factories in Yumin Village because of its proximity to Hong Kong.

    The village made its first dollar in 1979 when seven Hong Kong-invested companies opened, paying to use village land.

    “We felt ill at ease in the first year because we did not know whether the government allowed it,” Deng said.

    1981— The wealthiest village in China

    Villagers were divided on how to spend the windfall, some suggesting it be distributed to households, many of which were scrambling to pool money for living expenses.

    But Deng and his officials were more ambitious, insisting the money be invested to produce a snowball effect.

    They bought two cargo ships to transport cement and steel from Dongguan and Zhongshan to sell in Shenzhen, which was in short supply of sufficient construction materials for fast development.

    Business was brisk and they soon sold the ships and bought trucks which earned money faster.

    Economic returns were substantial. By 1981 when 10,000 yuan sounded astronomical to every Chinese, each family in the village had an annual income surpassing the figure, earning it the nickname “the Village of 10,000-yuan Households.” Before 1980, each household was able to save no more than 2,000 yuan a year by growing crops and fishing.

    1984 — Deng Xiaoping visits

    Deng Xiaoping was impressed with the villagers’ affluence during his first tour Jan. 25, 1984.

    He found a color TV set and recorder, which were then luxury goods for ordinary Chinese, in the home of Wu Baishen, then the village Party chief, and was happy to hear that Wu’s monthly salary was 500 yuan. “It is even higher than mine,” the leader said.

    “He was in high spirits and promised us that China would never turn back on the economic reform policy,” Deng Zhibiao said. “That dispelled our misgivings and was branded on my mind forever, helping me overcome obstacles whenever there were difficulties.”

    In the late 1980s, more inspired villagers were in business such as leasing houses and running restaurants.

    In 1992, Yumin became one of China’s first village-turned shareholding company, with total assets of more than 8 million yuan, double the assets of 1984.

    2001 — Urbanization

    The glory was bygone as time rolled into the late 1990s when Shenzhen shot to prosperity.

    “The village lost color and it was hard for the villagers to concede that everything they used to take pride in became outdated in the face of urban sprawl,” Deng said.

    Many inhabitants added floors to their buildings without government approval so that they could lease out more flats to migrant workers to increase income, as most other urban villages in Shenzhen did.

    The illegal buildings were called “handshake” houses because they were built so close together that residents could reach through the window to shake hands with neighbors. Urban villagers regarded this type of accommodation as a cash cow and they have been plaguing Shenzhen ever since.

    They were not merely an eyesore. Because of lack of planning, some buildings were potential safety hazards because they were poorly designed and shabbily built.

    The village returned to the spotlight in 2001 when the Luohu District Government approved it as a pilot in the reconstruction of urban villages in an effort to rid the city of illegal buildings.

    Deng and his staff tried to persuade the villagers to agree to the project. “It was an arduous job,” he said. “I knew how they felt.”

    Most were convinced after Vice Mayor Zhuo Qinrui, then in charge of the project, told them that with an investment of 3 million yuan, each household would have 12 apartments, which would be worth more than 6 million yuan on the market.

    A total of 90 million yuan was collected from residents for the project, which has replaced the village’s shoddy buildings with new garden housing estates. (Li Jing)

   Shenzhen first

    village-less city

    SHENZHEN became China’s first city without villagers in October 2004.

    In 1992, Shenzhen started the first urbanization experiment.

    All registered permanent residents in the four districts inside the special economic zone, Luohu, Futian, Nanshan and Yantian districts, were converted to city dwellers. At that time, initial estimations indicated that Shenzhen had about 2,000 villages, more than 200 of which were within the zone, with 300,000 private houses.

    By the end of 2004, all the towns under the rural organization system in Bao’an and Longgang districts became subdistrict offices and all the village committees became neighborhood committees. The 270,000 villagers all became urban residents.

    Being a villager or rural resident would mean no access to pensions, healthcare and other social security and welfare services, which are privileges enjoyed only by urban residents.

    (Li Jing)