Opportunity to till land with dignity

After the end of the world turned out to be a bust this year, will there be similar apocalyptic fears in 10 years? Who knows, but in rural areas of China the end of the old world might be pretty close.

In the village of Panguanying in Qinhuangdao, Hebei Province, the new world is close. The village is now within two hours of Beijing by train. And the young people in the village are already moving out to big cities.

In 2011, 51.27 percent of Chinese lived in urban areas, the first time the figure exceeded the rural population. Will the village disappear entirely in the next decade?

"More people will leave the village but those who stay will no longer need to work their heads off on their lands. Land will be redistributed and we'll have more technology and probably more compensation or funds from the government to help us farming in an advanced way," Pan Zhizhong, a 49-year-old local sheep farmer, told the Global Times.

Optimists point to a future where even ordinary farmers are aided by sophisticated technology, especially since the 18th Party congress report has already pointed to future policy preferences for farmers and the goal of boosting the production efficiency in rural China as a whole by finishing the transition from traditional to modern farming techniques.

Farming cooperatives will also be diversified toward a more professional, organizational, centralized and socialized direction, the report said.