China's road to riches could not be more boldly signposted than it is in Huaxi, officially the country's wealthiest village. Take the municipal government's stretch limousine across Textile Bridge, pass the smokestacks of the steelworks, speed alongside row after row of symmetrical pale-blue houses, skirt the 15-storey pagoda hotel and then alight for a walk down the red-carpeted corridor of capital.
This concrete-covered passageway is a monument to the giddy material progress made by the commune since China's policymakers began mixing their ideological drinks 26 years ago.
None went as far as Huaxi in combining the strict political control of the ruling Communist Party with the get-rich-quick economics of the market -- and the results are being hailed as a model for the nation to follow.
To demonstrate how good that cocktail is supposed to make the locals feel, "Huaxi Road" is decorated with smiling pictures of every family in the village.
Each household's assets are listed in detail: size of the family, value of their property, average level of education, number of members of the Communist Party, as well as how many cars, mobile phones, televisions, washing machines, computers, air-conditioning units, motorbikes, cameras, fridges and stereo systems they own.
At first sight, the figures seem to justify Huaxi's boast to be the "No.1 village in China." Since 1995, when Huaxi became the first commune in China to list shares on a stock exchange, local businesses -- mostly in textiles and steel -- have taken off. Their spectacular expansion has made even the national average growth rate of 9 percent a year seem laggardly. In 2003, the village reported the combined turnover of its companies at 10 billion yuan (US$1.2 billion). Last year, it hit 26 billion -- and by 2008 it is expected to double again.
This has turned residents -- all still officially registered as peasants -- into wealthy industrialists. Elsewhere in the country, the annual average disposable income of urban dwellers only recently passed US$1,000. In the countryside, the figure is two-thirds lower. But Huaxi's residents get a yearly salary of US$1,500, a bonus of US$10,000 and dividends of US$25,000.
Twenty years ago, most were farmers living in small, one-storey houses, who struggled to save the money to buy a bicycle. Now, they are shareholders with an average living space of more than 450m2 and at least one family car.
Such statistics mean Huaxi is now held up as a model in a nationwide re-education campaign for Communist Party cadres. It is also attracting growing numbers of foreign visitors seeking clues about the direction of Chinese society.
Huaxi's model is by no means the only option for villages, but if it becomes a template the future might just as easily be described as shareholder feudalism.
Located about 160km north of Shanghai in Jiangsu province, Huaxi has been described in the domestic media as both a "paradise" and a "dictatorship." While its residents are nominally richer than any other community, they have less time and freedom to spend their money. Bars and restaurants close before 10pm so that workers do not oversleep. Holidays are scarce. And villagers get little cash from their paper assets. Eighty percent of their annual bonus and 95 percent of their dividend must be reinvested in the commune. If they leave the village, this paper wealth disappears.
But with living standards improving rapidly, few people seem to mind. Sun has done particularly well. As a child he remembers only being able to eat meat once a week. Now, he treats visitors to lavish meals of globe fish at the local restaurant and lives in a new villa -- decorated with Greek pillars and a marble staircase -- by the edge of an artificial lake.
Pragmatism rather than ideology is the guiding principle.
"No matter whether it's a new kind of ism or an old kind of ism, our aim is to make everyone rich," said Wu Renbao, the former village chief who is credited with starting the Huaxi miracle.
During the Cultural Revolution, Wu was publicly humiliated in the village square as a "capitalist roader" because he wanted to establish a factory in the community. Now, he is held up as a national hero. But he says the guiding principle is simple.
"People here have five aims in life: money, a car, a house, a son and respect. We give them that. Every family here is rich. Our target now is to make all of China rich."
The Huaxi system resembles the imperial dynasties of old more than communism. At the top is the ruling family: Wu has been replaced as village chief by his son, Xie'en, who was recently re- elected with 100 percent of the votes in the commune. At least half of the village's main companies are run by other children and grandchildren.
At the bottom are the 30,000 migrant workers who do most of the work in the steel mills and textile factories for less than US$150 a month.
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