On the road to moderately prosperous society, Dayingjie Community succeeds in making people get better and better. 

After a lunch break, Yang Yongsheng locked the door, walked to the parking lot with a brisk pace, and drove to the sesame chip factory to work.

In a pavilion of Yuquanhu subdistrict, Huang Xingbang was playing erhu, and several old people with grey hair were laughing and singing with the melody, which was very lively.

The “Happy Town” in the southwest is being built brick by brick, and the blueprint for the common prosperity of the whole people in Dayingjie Community is slowly being drawn up.

From house to villa, people’s life is getting better and better. 

Dayingjie Community, Hongta District, Yuxi City is located in the southwest of Kunming. It takes one hour and a half for people in Kunming to drive along Gaohai Expressway and Jinhong Expressway to here. Looking up, “the First Village of Yunnan” in Chinese written on a big memorial gate is particularly eye-catching. Walking inside the Yuquanhu residential area, people can see verdant trees and rows of dwellings with white wall and black tiles.

"We moved in May 2016 and are living comfortably now." Yang Yongsheng, who has just turned 50 this year, introduced himself as a worker of sesame chip factory. His wife works in another factory. They have a son and a daughter.

“The old house was about 270 square meters while the new one is 480 square meters, but it cost us about 273,000 yuan to afford the new space at 1,300 yuan per square meter." Mr. Yang said.

As for the semi-detached villa was built together according to unified construction standard and management. Mr. Yang is very satisfied with the living environment. “The environment is much safer than before, and we don’t need to worry about the public surroundings, as well as the property management fee.”

In Yang’s opinion, every family lives in a villa and owns a car. They have already achieved moderately prosperous society.

Like Mr. Yang, many residents work in different enterprises. As a result, when you walk around the area, there is no chance to encounter many young people in daytime except the gorgeous landscape. Sometimes, you may heard the sound of erhu. Following the sound, you would meet Huang Xingbang.

Mr. Huang was born in 1941 and raised in Dayingjie Community. He was teaching math and serving as the principal of Dayingjie Central Primary School from 1995 to 2005. At present, he likes playing cards or the erhu with friends.

"In the past, there were not enough food to eat. Several families were crammed into a small old house. That was very poor.” Recalling the bitter days, Huang Xingbang sincerely said that thanks to the the reform and opening up, Dayingjie Community has developed the collective economy and leaded the people to get rich together.

“We receive retirement pay for life every month and people get along well with each other.” According to Huang, residents here can enjoy more than a dozen welfare benefits. People who reach the age of 94 and 99 can receive a one-time longevity prize of 50,000 yuan and 100,000 yuan. "There is no need to worry about food and clothing. We have achieved a comfortable life and believe that the future will be better and better."

Great changes have taken place in Dayingjie Community by developing collective economy. 

The environment is beautiful and people enjoy good time here. It’s hard to imagine that it was an extremely poor place 40 years ago, which was called “a village with five difficulties”.

"Five difficulties" refer to the difficulties in food, water, housing, transportation and marriage. Yan Wei, Vice Secretary of Dayingjie Community branch of the Communist party, explained, “in the past, the per capita living area of Dayingjie Community was less than 5 square meters, and there were only 4 wells providing water. Anyone who got up late wouldn’t be able to get water after 10 o'clock. Ladies who knew the situation were not willing to marry men here.” 

In the early 1980s, the spring breeze of reform is blowing all over the ground including Dayingjie Community. People here took advantage of the time to develop economy. In 1978, Dayingjie Community has started running three collective enterprises, namely clothing factory, infrastructure factory and repair factory; in 1986, sesame chip factory was established; from 1988 to 1989, Yuxi cigarette filter factory and Yuxi tipping paper factory were newly built to drive rural economic income increased to 3.9 million yuan. By 1992, the total economic income of Dayingjie Community reached 110 million yuan, becoming the first village to achieved over 100 million yuan in Yuxi area at that time.

When time went by, a lot of collective enterprises have sprung up in Yuxi, such as ink factory, copper material factory, solar energy factory and so on. 

Setting up collective enterprises and developing collective economy, Dayingjie Community has taken the first step of achieving common prosperity.

"The road of common prosperity of Dayingjie Community cannot be paved without the support of collective economy." Yan Wei said that the total economic income of Dayingjie Community had exceeded 1 billion yuan by 1995, which made it win the title of "the First Village of Yunnan".

The per capita net income from 167 yuan in 1978 increased to 28,803 yuan in 2019 while the total economic income from 980,000 yuan in 1978 jumped to 11.921 billion yuan in 2019, Yan Wei decoded the secret of getting rich, “the development is beneficial from the Party's good policies and reform and opening up."

According to Yan Wei, Yang Yongsheng's happy life is not an exception in Dayingjie Community because there are various supporting measures. For example, the community arrange medical insurance and accident insurance for children born here; children over 3 years old can enter kindergarten for free; each person can get a bonus of 6000 yuan at the end of the year. After retirement, they can receive a pension ranging from 363 yuan to 990 yuan per month.

Nowadays Dayingjie Community has gained the reputations of "Model of Common Prosperity in Chinese Rural Areas", "Beautiful Leisure Village in China", etc. It is focusing on developing tourism, promoting the high-quality development of the economy and striding towards common prosperity.

Developing tertiary industries and building a “Happy Town”, Dayingjie Community is striding toward common prosperity. 

Dayingjie Community has been thinking about how to benefit the people better for a long time on the road of achieving moderately prosperity in all respects and striving for common prosperity, given the current industrial zone is not good for improving infrastructure and public service facilities in the near future.

Where there is a problem, there is a solution. In 2018, Dayingjie Community has launched relocation and upgrading project, which gradually relocated the secondary industries to particular industrial land and made full use of the vacated land to develop tertiary industries, named “Happy Town”.

“‘Happy Town’ project was started planning and design work in June 2016 and officially started on April 25, 2019. Covering an area of 284 mu, it will be constructed in five phases. " Yan Wei added.

At present, the project of “Happy Town” has completed an investment of 620 million yuan, and is speeding up the construction of a sub-project with a total investment of 820 million yuan. It aims at providing people with a place to travel, enjoy culture, do sports and relax. 

“Happy Town” carries the hope and expectations of locals. When it is completed, it would be a new tourism landmark, a new tourism center of Yuxi, and a model of rural revitalization. Then it will significantly improve the living environment.

"When the ‘Happy Town’ is built, we believe that our life would be happier and better." Talking about the Happy Town, Huang Xingbang's words were full of expectations.

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(Editors: Rachel, Christine)