Guangdong pushes to make entire province an economic powerhouse

College student Tang Zhiqiang has spent all summer helping his parents plant rice on their farm in the Guangdong village of Xiadong.

Tang's ancestors have worked this land for generations. They are among the poorest of the poor in a rural area that is a world away from Guangzhou, the prosperous heart of the Pearl River Delta just 60 kilometres away.

The family scrapes a living, struggling to support Tang, 22, and his two sisters in their college studies. But life is about to change forever. Tang's family believes this is the last year that they will bow down and till the land.

Xiadong and the 45-square-kilometre area surrounding it is set to be absorbed by the city of Qingyuan to provide homes for 400,000 people by 2020 at a cost of 30 billion yuan (HK$37.7 billion).

Tang has suddenly become an eligible bachelor, as matchmakers see young men from the area as a good catch due to the belief that their families will be compensated and receive prime apartments in the new development.

Qingyuan's new town isn't the only one planned for the poorer areas of Guangdong. In the next few years at least a dozen such towns will be built, each backed by huge investments by the provincial authorities.

It's all part of an ambitious plan by provincial party chief Hu Chunhua to close the gap between delta region cities that have benefited from a three-decade industrial boom and rural regions.