Shantytown dwellers celebrate holiday in new homes

For Chen Zhiting and Zhang Yide, old miners who used to live in shanty housing near a half-abandoned coal mine, this year's National Day holiday marks a comfortable beginning of their retired lives.

"I could not fall asleep during rainy days in the past, because the falling mud and clay made me afraid of our house, which could have collapsed at any minute," says Chen's 60-year-old wife Pan Youlan, with whom he lived in the old house for 37 years.

"My husband had to climb a ladder to cover the roof with tarpaulin so that I would not get wet," Pan remembers of their dwelling in Heshan City of south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. "Now, though, I don't have to worry about his safety on rainy nights."

In Heshan, over 1,200 households have moved out of the shantytown near one of the country's oldest coal production bases, thanks to the local government's low-rent policies.

Heshan coal mine production base started operation over a century ago in 1905, with miners and their family members exceeding 50,000 at its peak, according to Xie Xin, director of Heshan Housing and Urban-Rural Development Bureau.

"The tile-roofed mud houses that old miners used to live in had become dilapidated due to poor maintenance and land subsidence caused by mining," Xie explains. "And we had to urge them to stay in a relative's home or in a cheap hotel when it rained at night."

In response to the national campaign to improve the living standards of urban residents in run-down areas, Heshan initiated shantytown rebuilding in 2010. At the time, there were about 4,500 households living in old blocks of crudely built and poorly maintained houses.

Under the reconstruction plan, three low-rent communities and two affordable housing neighborhoods are to be built on a combined investment of government funding and market financing of up to 450 million yuan (73.45 million U.S. dollars).

"The rent is 0.8 yuan per square meter a month, so altogether we only have to pay 40 yuan for my 50-square-meter apartment," says Pan, who had never dreamed of having her own bedroom, kitchen, bathroom and balcony after retirement.

The per capita disposable income of city dwellers in Heshan was 19,709 yuan in 2012.

The livelihood-boosting reconstruction has also emboldened Zhang Yide to consume more for a better life.

A total of 3.04 million households in various cities around China will be able to move into new apartments this year, according to the requirements of the central government.

"Another 1,000 households (in Heshan) will move from shabby houses into bright low-rent apartments by the end of 2013," confirms Xie.