Remote Gansu pins hope on new chance to catch the development bandwagon

Thirty-seven-year-old Wang Shanxi , an onion farmer from Minqin county, Gansu province , squats at the end of his field and smokes quietly with a heavy heart.

Drought and encroaching salinity have sapped the fertility of his 800 square metres of cropland and his onion harvest is almost 30 per cent lower than last year's.

Mr Wang is wondering whether he should make the 110km journey south to Wuwei to find odd jobs to supplement the income for his four-mouth family.

Someone told him the government was building a huge network of gas pipelines in Wuwei and is hiring more hands. A number of men from his village have already gone and wages were said to be good.

The gas pipelines in question are the second backbone conduit traversing China and channelling fuel from Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan to the prosperous but energy-thirsty Yangtze River and Pearl River deltas. Wuwei is just one knot in the 4,859km, 142.2 billion yuan (HK$161.93 billion) line which will pass through 14 provinces and municipalities in east and south China.

Construction of the gas pipeline started in February and as it cuts a 1,100km corridor through Gansu, authorities hope it will not only help improve local infrastructure, but also offer ample energy and resources to fuel the province's newly announced industrialisation crusade.