Golden day for 3,000 villagers by English.Eastday.com | March 24, 2012
VILLAGERS in Jiangyin City in eastern China's
Jiangsu Province have been given 100-gram bars of gold and
silver to celebrate the 40th anniversary of a village-owned
business.
The Jiangsu Xin Chang Jiang Group, one of
the top 20 private enterprises in China, distributed 300
kilograms of gold and 300 kilograms of silver last Saturday
to the nearly 3,000 residents of Changjiang Village.
The village also gave each household a safe
to store their valuables, the Modern Express newspaper reported
yesterday.
For security reasons, the village officials
had kept secret when the precious metals would be handed
out. Every family in the villagers was given a safe on March
15, triggering speculation that the gold would soon arrive.
Two days later they were told they could collect their bars
at noon.
"Bingo! Let's go to get our gold,"
one villager was quoted as saying. Another villager, surnamed
Zhou, was first in the queue, the report said.
"It's heavy and real," Zhou said
of her gold bar with dragon icon.
Another, surnamed Zhao, was so happy he
immediately took a picture of his gold and e-mailed it to
his son.
One large family received 700 grams of gold,
a village official said. He said the retail price of gold
had recently hit 400 yuan (US$64) per gram.
Many families said they would have gold
rings made for their daughters and keep the remaining gold
as an heirloom.
"Unmarried young men and women in our
village are very popular because of our wealth," a
villager surnamed Sun told Xinhua news agency, adding that
he planned to give a gold bar to his future son-in-law.
In previous years, the company built houses
for villagers and distributed shares and cash dividends.
Last year, it spent 64,000 yuan on decorating the gates
of the villagers' villas.
The Jiangsu Xin Chang Jiang Group is involved
in eight industries including electricity, metals and chemicals.
Changjiang Village is among several rich
villages in Jiangsu Province. Huaxi Village, also in Jiangyin
City, once China's richest, gained its wealth from steel
and fabric factories, among other enterprises.
The average annual income of a Huaxi villager
was 85,000 yuan in 2010, comparing to around 32,000 yuan
for an average Shanghai resident.
In a drive to boost economic growth with
tourism, it spent 3 billion yuan building the 74-story five-star
Long Hope International Hotel which, at 328 meters, is China's
eighth tallest building. A huge golden globe on top, glittering
under the sun, can be seen from several kilometers away.