Beijing
\nAt this time of winter, Wangjiaqiao village, Shuitianba township, Zigui county, Yichang city, central China\u2019s Hubei province, is beautifully decorated with citrus trees laden with golden fruits around people\u2019s houses and on both sides of a newly upgraded road passing through the village.
\nWith a mild climate and abundant rainfall, Zigui county is famous for citrus fruits, and Shuitianba township is one of the main citrus fruits producing areas in the county.
\nAs the fruits have entered the mature season, trucks are running in a continuous stream on the road that winds up to the mountains in Wangjiaqiao village to collect fruits for sale.
\n\u201cThe transportation of citrus fruits used to be our biggest headache at this time of year in the past. Now that the road is so much wider than before, trucks can directly drive to our orchards, and we no longer worry that the fruits would rot in trees,\u201d said Hu Xueping, a resident in the village.
\n\u201cThe cement road first built in 2008 was the only road connecting our village with the outside world. But it was only 3.5 meters wide, which was too narrow for large vehicles, and many parts of the road surface were damaged,\u201d said Du Hailin, former secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) general branch committee in Wangjiaqiao village.
\nAs the village witnessed continuous growth in the local citrus industry, its weak link of poor transportation conditions became particularly prominent, Du recalled.
\nAfter learning that local villagers hoped that the road would be widened, the villagers\u2019 committee of Wangjiaqiao village added the transformation and upgrading of the road, which threads five villagers\u2019 groups, onto its agenda.
\nA local democratic consultation mechanism named \u201cevening talk of villagers\u2019 group\u201d has played a crucial role in the development of solutions to various issues concerning the transformation and upgrading of the road, including construction cost and compensation for land expropriation.
\nSince the village didn\u2019t have sufficient funds for upgrading the road, it needed to ask villagers to share some of the expenditure on the project. The \u201cevening talk of villagers\u2019 group\u201d mechanism helped formulate a plan that won wide support from villagers.
\nThe \u201cevening talk of villagers\u2019 group\u201d democratic consultation mechanism, which enables officials and villagers to discuss measures and ways to shake off poverty, increase income, and improve governance face to face, is one of the fruits of Zigui county\u2019s active efforts to boost local economic and social development in recent years.
\nThe county has divided its 186 villages into 2,055 villagers\u2019 groups, each with 30 to 50 households and a management council. Villagers elect a head and eight members for each management council, and Party members elect the head of the CPC branch of the villagers\u2019 group, which then form a team for self-governance.
\nIn April 2020, the basic plan jointly proposed by the villagers\u2019 committee and the Party committee of Wangjiaqiao village for the transformation and upgrading of the road was adopted at a meeting attended by representatives of villagers in Wangjiaqiao.
\nShortly after the meeting, villagers\u2019 groups involved in the project discussed details of the implementation of the plan through the \u201cevening talk of villagers\u2019 group\u201d mechanism.
\nIn the more than two months following the passage of the plan, a total of nearly 30 meetings were held in Wangjiaqiao village under the mechanism, with the number of participants reaching 700 person-times.
\nAfter repeated discussions with villagers, the villagers\u2019 committee and the Party committee of Wangjiaqiao village finalized a plan for sharing the cost of the project and balancing land expropriation and compensation.
\nAs of September 2020, all the 253 households involved in land expropriation in the project had signed the application for balancing land expropriation and compensation.
\nWhen it heard that Wangjiaqiao village decided to upgrade its road, the bureau of transportation of Zigui county immediately established a special working group for the project, and drew up a proposal for the transformation of the road linking Wangjiaqiao village and Qinghaoyu village in Zigui county into a 5-km two-lane fourth-grade highway.
\nAt the same time, the bureau reported the road expansion project to the Department of Transportation of Hubei province and won 8.1 million yuan ($1.27 million) of rural road construction fund and other funds for the project.
\nIn October 2020, the project officially kicked off. A year later, the 5-km asphalt concrete two-lane road was completed and opened to traffic. The upgraded road is 2.5 meters wider than the old one, with the roadbed 3 meters higher than before, becoming safer and smoother.
\nAs the look of the road changed with each passing day during construction, Hu Kaijin, a resident in Wangjiaqiao village, passed his driving test and bought a car.
\nAlthough he had to cut down 88 citrus trees in his orchard to make way for the project, he said it was worth it, because the road has brought great changes to his life.
\n\u201cSince large trucks can now collect citrus fruits at orchards, the transportation cost of fruits can be reduced by 0.2 yuan per kilogram, and the transportation efficiency has also been improved significantly,\u201d said Hu Jing, chief of the CPC general branch committee in Wangjiaqiao village.
\nAfter the road was upgraded, many residents of the village working outside have returned to their hometown to start their own businesses, according to Hu.
\nToday, the village has more than 30 professional citrus production and marketing cooperatives and online stores, and the number of private cars in the village has exceeded 200.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Beijing At this time of winter, Wangjiaqiao village, Shuitianba township, Zigui county, Yichang city, central China\u2019s Hubei province, is beautifully decorated with citrus trees laden with golden fruits around people\u2019s houses and on both sides of a newly upgraded road passing through the village. With a mild climate and abundant rainfall, Zigui county is famous […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-243967","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n