Richest village's monument to itself reaches for the sky
Huaxi to flaunt its wealth with a 72-storey building
The mainland's richest village is building a monument in the sky dedicated to itself - a 72-storey tower with a price tag of at least 1 billion yuan.
Huaxi village proclaims that the 300-metre high building falls under a central government policy of building a 'new socialist countryside', even though such a flaunting of wealth seems at odds with the drive to narrow the income gap between rural residents and urban dwellers.
But there are no dissenting voices in Huaxi, in Jiangsu province, near Shanghai, where past policies have made the villagers rich. Huaxi was the first village to have a gross domestic product of 10 billion yuan, reaching that mark in 2003.
'The building will allow us to reach the sky,' resident Wu Jianqing said.
Dubbed the 'New Countryside in the Sky', the building will have three towers linked by bridges with a massive sphere on top, offering more than 200,000 square metres of space. It will be surrounded by a man-made lake.
Officials claim the building will conserve land by providing homes for 400 families and the cost of the project will be borne by the villagers themselves as investors. But there are doubters, fuelled by a wave of negative publicity about local governments building luxurious buildings.
Ge Jianxiong, of the Institute of History and Geography Studies at Shanghai's Fudan University, said: 'Since China is still short of resources, the government shouldn't allow rich villages to construct as many buildings as they like. It should restrict and control construction even if the village pays itself.'
He urged a professional evaluation of the building, including construction materials, energy conversation and safety. 'And then the local government should find out whether the project is worth building,' Professor Ge said.
The local government says construction would take five years. Half of the building would be residential, while the other half would be used as a hotel to entertain guests in 'five-star' luxury.
Viewing the neat rows of white villas in Huaxi, it is possible to believe that the village might pull it off. A showcase park is filled with equally odd constructions: a church and mosque without religious significance, as well as replicas of the US Capitol Building and the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.
While some wonder if the village was built by Potemkin - famed for building false villages to fool Russian empress Catherine the Great - the credit goes to Huaxi's original Communist Party secretary, Wu Renbao. Mr Wu set up a collective long before it was fashionable, or even permitted.
That has grown into a massive conglomerate with factories ranging from steel to textiles. Last year the company had 40 billion yuan in sales.
The village's original residents receive a package of salaries, dividends and bonuses which have made them wealthy, as the area benefits from rapid development across southern Jiangsu. Every household has assets ranging from 1 million yuan to 10 million yuan, officials claim.
'Huaxi used to be very poor. We wanted to change the face of Huaxi, so the village has become wealthy,' said Wu Xie'en, current party secretary and son of the original chief. He is chairman of the group company, marrying interests of the government with the corporation.
Not everyone shares in the wealth. The village has grown so large it is heavily dependent on at least 15,000 migrant workers who don't receive the same benefits.
