Xinhua News Agency, Changsha, February 14th Title: Wuyi Mountain Village, Hunan: The old house has a new look

Xinhua News Agency reporters Ruan Zhouwei and Xie Ben

In the three-story small building, the modern decoration is grand and bright, the brand new ceramic tiles and home appliances are spotless, and the vegetable fields in front of the door are neatly planned... This Spring Festival, Yang Hui's family moved into the new house for the New Year, and the whole family was happy.

"Everything in a new house, the whole family is so happy!" Yang Hui is a villager in Datang Yangwuchang, Wuyishan Village, Miluo Town, Miluo Town, Yueyang City, Hunan Province. "Last year, we started building a new house, and the village also gave us subsidies, which greatly reduced our burden."

This is Datang Yangwu Farm in Wuyishan Village, Miluo Town, Miluo City, Yueyang City, Hunan Province (drone photo) taken in January 2025. (Photo by Yang Bo)

Wuyi Mountain Village belongs to the suburbs of urban areas. The main Datang Yangwuchang is close to the Miluo urban area, with an area of ​​about 7.18 hectares. Most of the houses were built in the 1990s. Due to the lack of unified planning, the layout of the houses was chaotic and the phenomenon of private construction was serious.

"In recent years, villagers have strong demand for building houses for households, but suburban villages are urban construction land that are key to control. The approval of rural housing construction has been strictly controlled, and the contradiction between supply and demand of homesteads is very prominent." Wang Qihui, secretary of the Party Branch of Wuyishan Village, introduced that it is difficult to promote the construction of new houses for villagers, and the corresponding improvements in infrastructure and public services have also been "stuck". There were problems such as "cars cannot be driven in, insufficient voltage, sewage flows everywhere, and no tap water".

This is Datang Yangwuchang, Wuyishan Village, Miluo Town, Miluo City, Yueyang City, Hunan Province (drone photo) taken in May 2022. (Photo by Yang Bo)

"The second difficult problem comes immediately." Yao Tuo, deputy director of the Yueyang Development and Reform Commission, was the Party Secretary of Miluo Town at the time. He told reporters that centralized building of houses involves occupying other villagers' homesteads, which is easy to cause conflicts.

Wuyishan Village has held consecutive villagers' congresses and household head meetings to clarify the goals, explain policies, and thoroughly explain the requirements, and improve the participation rate and awareness rate of the masses. Yao Tuo introduced that the village committee took the lead in doing a good job in land coordination and homestead distribution between groups and households, and made clear that new houses in the houses were built in strict accordance with the requirements of "one household, one house" and made clear regulations on the land area and number of floors.

In order to smoothly promote the demolition of old houses and the construction of new houses, the village committees, whose collective economic income is not bad, have also set aside a sum of funds to reward and subsidize villagers. Wang Qihui introduced that municipal engineering, greening, etc. are invested by the village, and special funds from higher-level departments have also supported part of them.

This is the new house of Yang Hui's family photographed on February 8, 2025 (middle). Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Xie Ben

Walking into the current Datang Yangwuchang, the buildings are neat and uniform, with white walls and blue roofs, and bright windows. Big red lanterns were hung on the rows of street lights. The roads are open and tidy, and the supporting facilities such as greening, natural gas, and tap water are perfect, which completely bid farewell to the past scene of spider webs and messy overhead lines. According to Song Xiong, the mayor of Miluo Town, at present, 77 dilapidated houses have been demolished in Yangwuchang, Datang, and 73 new houses have been built.

"Not only did the house become beautiful, but the problems of tap water and circuits have been solved through the renovation of the house, and the conflicts between neighbors have been reduced, so everyone gets along more harmoniously." said villager Yang Guoxin.