The local government support also extended into naming Shengheng as a provincial-level demonstration agricultural park. In addition, a local commercial bank has ensured financing of more than 200 million yuan.

Land is the most important asset for farmers. Shengheng is renting farmers' land, and Ning said his goal is to make farmers in Chashan share-holders of Shengheng and centralize the management of the village's land in the coming years. Thus farmers could get a rental income, a salary for working for the company and a bonus if the company makes a profit.

Shengheng, currently a private company, was established for the benefit of the villagers. Ning said that his goal is to ensure basic welfare for children and senior citizens of the village.

Xu Xiaoqing, director of department for rural economic development at the State Council's Development Research Center, said the practice of turning villagers into shareholders has been replicated in other places, such as Xiabo village in Foshan, Guangdong province.

"It (pooling land as shares) is a good effort to bring the villages out of poverty. But there are also risks like the performance of the enterprise," said Xu.

Lots of land was used for building factories in Xiabo and the village's development stagnated after years of hectic development.

"We won't damage the cultivated land no matter how well Chashan develops since that's not sustainable development," Ning said.

Yang Jun and Su Jiangyuan contributed to this story.

Migrant millionaire turning village around

His dream is something that Ning Weihua often talks about. Born in Chashan in 1980, the 34-year-old left the impoverished village at age 12 and became a migrant worker in Guiyang and other surrounding cities. He started out washing dishes at a restaurant and went on to become a labor contractor for projects doing road construction and civil work, making him tens of millions of yuan.

In 2010, he decided to return to his home town with a dream to lead the villagers out of poverty as well as pursue his own rural development goals.

The first thing that he did was to rent about 20 hectares of land from farmers for a fruit tree plantation. According to the contract, 30 percent of the revenue would be given to the farmers and the rest would accrue to Ning, who had already invested close to 800,000 yuan ($129,600) on things such as pesticide and technology.

But to the villagers' surprise, Ning not only returned the contracts to the farmers, but also distributed all the proceeds to them. Naturally, this helped earn Ning trust among the villagers.

"I have ambition," said Ning, who was voted as the village head in 2013.

Ning invited more than 30 villagers on a 1,800-kilometer trip to Huaxi village in Jiangsu province to compare it to Chashan.

After the two-day visit, many villagers were struck by the stark contrast between their poor hometown and modern Huaxi, one of China's richest villages.

After the trip, many villagers gained a better understanding about Ning's goals and became eager to contribute their land for the village's overall development, he said.

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