Niu Shougui's wife served lunch while their son was still lighting firecrackers. "The meal is ready," she announced. It clocked 12 on the third day of the first month of the lunar year, and the six family members sat around the table with their legs crossed to enjoy lunch.

They ate on a typical square table on a heated adobe bed in rural north China, on which a tray of chicken, two fried dishes, two cold dishes, steamed bread, a large bottle of Coca-Cola and a pot of local distilled spirits were served.

Almost every meal during the Spring Festival followed the same routine although dishes were different.

Most importantly, it was a time of communication, and there was a big announcement this year.

"Construction of the new village will begin after this month and be completed after this autumn," said Niu, recounting what he had heard from the village director that morning. "It's a five-storied building and our room number will be confirmed by drawing straws."

For the Niu family, a new home in a high-rise building was a dream that came true. And it signified-along with other modern developments in this most rural of Chinese countryside-that the poor are beginning to live more richly. Certainly, the Niu family lifestyle is still a far cry from that of many urban residents, and even different from that of wealthier eastern rural families. But things are changing for this family, and mostly, it appears, for the better.

High-rise hopes

Niu's current five-room house, built out of bricks and wood, is located in a small village of Luliang in west Shanxi Province. There is a small courtyard in front of it and a hogpen in the courtyard for feeding livestock. Near the hogpen is a henroost, in which dozens of chickens are fed. At the courtyard corner is a toilet shaped by bricks. This kind of home is quite normal in the locality.

The per-capita housing area in the village is actually quite ample. However, the problem lies in sanitation. Dejections of the livestock are everywhere in the courtyard because of the irrational housing collocation. The toilet is also unsanitary as it stinks and is full of flies and mosquitoes in summer.

"Our village was identified as an experimental unit of the new countryside construction due to its geographical advantage," said Niu.

Niu's hometown is still a small remote village in the mountainous area of central China, completely relying on farming, despite the small distance to the county town. The local people still use the traditional Chinese calendar to keep a record of events rather than the Gregorian calendar. The new village construction will be accomplished in October according to the Gregorian calendar.

"We have been longing since childhood to live in a storied building with electric lights and telephones, which was used to describe the modern life in books when I was in primary school," said Niu. The dream of electric lights and telephones has already come true and now the dream of storied buildings is soon to be realized.

According to Niu, the new village construction, covering over 260 households with a population of more than 1,200, was mapped out by the village committee. Eight residential buildings are in the plan with each having four entrances and five floors. Every household will be supplied with running water, electricity and cable television. And gas pots will still be used due to the lack of gas pipelines. The county government and village committee are responsible for the initial construction investment, and the apartments will be sold to villagers at cost, with each family allowed to buy one apartment.

"According to the current layout, each square meter will cost 400-500 yuan," Niu said. "As a result, an 80-square-meter apartment will only cost around 40,000 yuan. Compared to my present house, which costs over 30,000 yuan, the new apartment is affordable," said Niu.

"The present house will be used to store dead stock and foodstuff or to feed livestock after we move into the new house," Niu said.

But would tearing down an old village to construct high-rises be in the best interests of the villagers, this reporter wondered.

"I think those worries result from lack of knowledge about the realities in the rural area," Niu said. "We farmers wish to live in storied buildings as the urban people do. Our moving into the new building will not affect agricultural production, but on the contrary will improve the living standards and save more farmland. We are just waiting to move into the new building."

Borrowing to thrive

When asked if he had enough money to buy the new apartment and support his two children's education, Niu accounted to the reporter for his family's expenditure.

Niu mainly plants corn, sorgum, soybeans and millet. He has contracted the farmland from his fellow villagers who left to work in the city. His family bought a tractor to cultivate the land but still has to reap by hand. Each hectare can bring him an average net profit of over 1,000 yuan after deducting the contracting fees. In 2006, Niu's family earned a total of 13,000 yuan.

According to Niu, the total income of 2006 increased over 4,000 yuan from 2005, thanks to the preferential policy of exempting agricultural taxes.

The two children were also exempt from paying tuition due to relevant policies for poverty-stricken counties. The increase of grain prices over the previous year also played a role.

But Niu is still short of cash needed to purchase the new high-rise home.

"I can borrow some money from neighbors and relatives," Niu added after a moment's thinking.

Private lending is quite normal in the area. People in urgent need of money can borrow tens to thousands of yuan from others. Receipts are unnecessary and interest is unpaid when borrowing money from friends or relatives. When borrowing from a stranger, people can have an acquaintance as a go-between. Niu himself has lent others money many times.

Niu made a simple calculation: If he borrows 20,000 yuan, he can pay off the debt in four years.

When asked why he doesn't apply for a loan from the local credit cooperative, Niu responded that it's too troublesome to work out guarantees and the mortgage.

"You have to rush around a lot and it's hard to say whether you can make it at last," Niu added.

According to Niu, staff of the credit cooperative had been to the village to promote small loans, but few people accepted because of the inconvenience and the ceiling quota of no more than 5,000 yuan.

The 14,000 yuan Niu spent in buying the tractor was all borrowed from relatives.

Living it up

"Life nowadays is much better than in the past," said Niu, whose greatest wish for the Spring Festival had once been to eat meat.

"Now we can even have drinks like cola, which often shows up on TV," Niu said. "And also we can buy almost anything at the grocery in the village."

Niu recalled a TV drama about the countryside several days earlier.

"Children were poorly dressed, living in houses with broken windows," Niu said. "The picture in which the underfed children were holding chocolate offered by urban people made me uncomfortable. I can't say whether it is true in reality, but I am sure nowadays that does not happen in the villages I have ever been to in my county."

Nowadays, well-known brands like "G.Bird" and "Hongqingting," which are advertised on TV, are seen on rural people.

Every household in the local rural area owns a color TV set with a receiver for satellite signals on the roof or in the courtyard.

Beginning last year, people over 60 can also get 50 yuan of allowance every month as annuity.

The village committee's investment in covering the village roads with cement and the effort to build the new village make Niu happy.

"The most worrying thing is the family falling ill," Niu said.

The cooperative health care system in rural areas encouraged by the government failed to be established in Niu's village for certain reasons. The illness of Niu's father two years ago cost him over 1,000 yuan.

"The high school tuition is also a concern to me," Niu said. "Tuition fees are exempted in primary and junior middle schools, but not for senior middle school and university education, for which costs are higher. It's still hard to say whether I can afford it."

Fellow villagers of Niu also share the same concerns.

Niu told this reporter that some households fell from wealth to poverty because of loans for medical treatment or for children's education.

"What can reassure us farmers is that some day the social security system in the rural areas will be similar to that in the city," Niu added. "We wish that day will not be too far away."