(XINHUA)

Wu Renbao, retired Communist Party of China chief of Huaxi Village in east China's Jiangsu Province, died of cancer at the age of 85 on March 18.

With annual sales revenue of more than 50 billion yuan ($7.93 billion), the village is one of the richest in the country.

Wu worked hard over the past decades to turn the once poverty-stricken area into a well-off village featuring villas, cars and a high per-capita income.

He has been hailed as an outstanding example among the country's many rural Party leaders.