CHONGQING, China – It is 10 am. The village of Dazu has just woken up to another hot July summer day. Temperatures are soaring this time of the day – 39 degrees Celsius to be precise.
Dazu is a two-hour drive from Chongqing, a city that is located on the upper reaches of the famous Yangtze river. The village lies beneath rugged mountain terrain to the south-west of the city.
A thick layer of smoke hovers around the blue sky and the combined effect of the soaring heat and smoke is only torture to the visitor.
But the people of this famous tourist mecca, well known for its ancient rock carvings and Budhism, are undeterred by the suffocating heat. For them, it is business as usual.
Dazu is not your typical Namibian or African village. In fact, some of China’s villages have little or no resemblance at all to an African village as this reporter and other African colleagues were to discover recently.
There are no thatched mud huts or such other features that are characteristics of an African village.
But like African villages, Dazu’s rice and wheat fields and animals have something in common with African villages. So too is its slow life. The similarities could probably end there. But the rest of the things match a typical African town – from double storey flats to streets and cooling and heating instruments however rudimentary they may be.
Our first stop was Dazu’s community office. Here, a short thick set man in his 60s is in charge. Hu Zhong Hu is his name. He is the village head and local chief of the Communist Party of China (CPC).
This is no coincidence. Every village, town and city in China is directly administered and run by the communist party through its representatives. And so powerful is the information portfolio that every village, town and city has an information Tzar at the helm for party propaganda and other staff responsible for communication and information dissemination.
In fact, the Chief Minister of Publicity of the Central Government in Beijing, Liu Yunsan, is above the rank of a minister and sits on the all powerful Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party.
Back to Dazu. The village has a population of 5 200 and a per capita income of 7,026 Yuan. Total agricultural output is 150 million Yuan.
Dressed in a white shirt and blue pants, Hu Zhong Hu is unfazed by the burning sun and beckons to the bus that is carrying his African guests. Chinese are very particular about protocol, order and punctuality and it was not going to be different here. His staff stood in order of protocol to welcome us and one could tell the leader from the ordinary. It was all set to the last detail.
Other characteristics of the Chinese person that we were to discover in Dazu and at all the places that we visited, are humility and modesty as well as total respect for authority.
Apart from the impressive economic statistics of this village, it also boasts of important landmarks and infrastructure – a well-furnished community office and library.
The community office comprises a population and birth control office, family planning association and a reproductive health services office, all run by professionals.
According to Hu, the people of his village live harmoniously. Stock theft and HIV/Aids are non-existent, he claims.
There are also no bars or drinking holes to talk about. When asked where his village gets beer or alcohol to drink, Hu’s response is that his people do not drink. The average family size, says Hu, is 3 to 4 people while an average farm unit is 10 acres.
Zhao Zhongsu, 54, is a housewife at Dazu. She lives with her husband, a wheat farmer. Their two children are grown up and have since moved out of the family home. She is always home to do the washing and cooking while her husband labours in the field.
“We are very happy with life here. Apart from food that we produce, we also enjoy welfare benefits from government in the form of money for tilling the land. It is 100 Yuan for three people. Although we are satisfied, we want for money,” says Zhao.
by Rajah Munamava ,Editor of NEW ERA