Resettled farmers start new life in urban China

75-year-old Ran Shunbi plays mahjong while holding her three-year-old great-grandson at their relocation housing in the southwestern Chinese megapolis of Chongqing...She and her extended family were moved from their farmland and resettled nearby in this purpose-built estate. ..The middle generations are at work in the city. ..China is pushing ahead with a dramatic, history-making plan to move 250 million rural residents into towns and cities over the next dozen years ? but without a clear idea of how to pay for the gargantuan undertaking or whether the farmers involved want to move....Moving farmers to urban areas is touted as a way of changing China's economic structure, with growth based on domestic demand for products instead of exporting them. In theory, new urbanites mean vast new opportunities for construction firms, public transportation, utilities and appliance makers, and a break from the cycle of farmers consuming only what they produce...Urbanization has already proven to be one of the most wrenching changes in China's 35 years of economic reforms. Land disputes rising from urbanization account for tens of thousands of protests each year.

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75-year-old Ran Shunbi plays mahjong while holding her three-year-old great-grandson at their relocation housing in the southwestern Chinese megapolis of Chongqing...She and her extended family were moved from their farmland and resettled nearby in this purpose-built estate. ..The middle generations are at work in the city. ..China is pushing ahead with a dramatic, history-making plan to move 250 million rural residents into towns and cities over the next dozen years ? but without a clear idea of how to pay for the gargantuan undertaking or whether the farmers involved want to move....Moving farmers to urban areas is touted as a way of changing China's economic structure, with growth based on domestic demand for products instead of exporting them. In theory, new urbanites mean vast new opportunities for construction firms, public transportation, utilities and appliance makers, and a break from the cycle of farmers consuming only what they produce...Urbanization has already proven to be one of the most wrenching changes in China's 35 years of economic reforms. Land disputes rising from urbanization account for tens of thousands of protests each year.