Beautiful Countryside: Initiatives to raise living standards in China's Panjin

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One of the campaigns to raise living standards in rural China carries the slogan "beautiful countryside". It's promoting a switch to cleaner energy and new ways to develop the rural economy. CGTN's Cui Hui'ao visited a village in Panjin in the northeastern province of Liaoning to see how the plan is working.

Hong Ben has lived in Panshan County all his life. He says one of the biggest changes for his family has been the introduction of natural gas.

HONG BEN, VILLAGER XINCUN VILLAGE, LIAONING PROVINCE "It's so much more convenient. Especially for cooking. You just turn it on whenever you want. Before, we had to use lots of wood for a fire."

The arrival of natural gas has also improved the air. Since natural gas became available in every household in the county, Hong says the days of burning straw and heavy smoke are gone.

Now, like 90 percent of the households in the county, Hong's house is equipped with a water heater that can heat up the floor within 10 minutes. However, as efficient and environmentally friendly as it is, the idea of using a water heater was hard to sell at first among villagers.

ZHANG XUEZHI, CHIEF XINCUN VILLAGE, LIAONING PROVINCE NEED DUBBING "Initially a lot of villagers rejected the idea because it would cost them a thousand yuan a year more than burning coal. So the government decided to subsidize each household by lowering the price to 3 yuan per cubic meter, which saves them about a third of the cost."

CUI HUI'AO PANJIN CITY, LIAONING There are 305 villages in Panjin. Last year, the city government decided to develop this new program that combines agriculture with tourism, by making these little villages into tourist destinations. That in turn has also increased the income of local villagers.

Many households are now supplementing their income by turning their homes into guest houses for tourists who want an authentic village experience.

WANG XUELI, VILLAGER XINCUN VILLAGE, LIAONING PROVINCE "We used to run a restaurant in town, but we decided to give that up and operate a guest house instead, so we wouldn't have to pay for labor and rent. Also, the government helped us refurbish the rooms for free, and now we make about 40,000 yuan a year more than before."

Last year, some 800 thousand people visited villages in Panjin. This year the city government is aiming even higher. Under the slogan "Beautiful Countryside", it plans to encourage more households like Hong's to open guest houses, making village tourism another growth point for the rural economy.