Expanding the joys of rural life
The stereotypical view of rural areas as places where people have to tramp for miles to see a doctor or take in a movie is fading in Pudong.
Home to the financial hub of Lujiazui, Pudong also has less-developed countryside like Zhangjiang, Zhoupu and Datuan towns. Now, rural residents have health, cultural and government services on their doorsteps.
To make life easier for everyone, from October, one-stop administrative service centers have opened in rural neighborhoods and, by the end of April, a total of 362 villages in Pudong will have such centers.
“Village officials used to be characterized as languishing lazily behind their desks in big offices with villagers obliged to run hither and thither to get anything done,” said Ling Junfeng, a district official. “But in today’s Pudong, everything is different.”
Jielong Village is a model of the new bureaucracy. The village commission used to occupy a two-floor building covering 500 square meters. The building has been gutted and it will reopen as a healthcare center by the end of April.
Village officials have moved to a much more appropriate 80-square-meter service center where they all share a single office, open to the public and handling nearly 200 administrative affairs for villagers.
“Removed from their individual offices, they face villagers directly, making it quick and easy for people to find the right official to deal with their concerns,” Ling said.
Ma Fengying, village Party chief, said: “It has not been easy for village leaders to change their work style, but now they are starting to enjoy it. Previously, it took a long time to gather officials for a meeting, but now we all sit together. We exchange ideas and share information just as the course of our normal day.”
Jielong Village has blurred the lines between officials and villagers and brought all administrative services under one roof, but some villages have gone even further.
Dengsan Village in Zhuqiao Town is home to the former residence of Zhang Wentian (1900-1976), a high-ranking Party official in the 1930s-40s. Its service center has been established on the site where local students received their revolutionary education.
Mengmiao Village in Nicheng Town offers employment advice in its service center. Qizao Village in Chuanshan New Town has a children's playground in its service center. At the service center of Xinnan Village in Xinchang Town, an ancient water town and popular tourist attraction, intangible culture inheritors give lessons every Friday afternoon.