Strolling in the Pantang village, a small village in Yiwu City of east China's Zhejiang Province, visitors would be struck by its neatness, which is deviated from the garbage-smothered stereotype of China's countryside.

A 52-year-old farmer, Liu Bixiang, is the street cleaner of Pantang. Her job, which is still novel in the country's rural areas, is to keep the village clean by emptying the wastebin in front of each household.

"Random littering was a bad habit that has been followed for thousands of years in rural areas. Usually you can see garbage piling at mountain foot or riverside," said Professor Huang Yiwei with the Zhejiang Institute of Environmental Science.

More than 1,000 street cleaners like Liu in the rural area of Yiwu or about 10,000 ashmen in the countryside of Zhejiang Province are now disposing of trash. The trash are first transferred to refuse collection station in towns and then to refuse treatment plant in the county for incineration and landfilling.

Traditionally seen as underdeveloped and self-sufficient, China's rural areas have now begun to enjoy some of the services that used to be seen as exclusive for the urbanites, as the country is committed to build "new rural areas" in the coming five years, in a bid to bridge the gap between the urbanites and farmers in living standards.

Apart from street cleaners, the rural area in Zhejiang will, as well, witness more salespersons in chained supermarkets and stores as the province aims to spread them over all of its townships and villages in three years.

"I get 700 yuan (about US$84) a month by working six to seven hours a day," Liu told Xinhua, saying that if she works in the city, she would as well find a similar job since she has neither favorable educational background nor specialities.

"As a cleaner, I can make more money here than in the cities, because the salary is similar and I have to spend more in the cities," Liu said. "My husband used to work in the cities. But now he has come back and become a cleaner for the neighboring Jindu village."

The initiative of building new rural areas has not only riveted farmers working in the cities to come back but also lured town folks to go to the countryside.

In addition to provision of financial subsidies, the local governments also invite public bidding for garbage disposal.

"A real-estate management company in the Yuhang City is bidding for providing sanitary services for several nearby villages," said Lu Shouliang, head of environmental protection bureau of Yuhang.

(Xinhua News Agency October 27, 2005)