Hancunhe Village is located 40 kilometers southwestof Beijing’s city center and is known as“thenumber one village in Beijing’s suburbs.”Thevillage contains many European-style，American-style，classical-style houses，and multi-story residences，an organicfood production plot with advanced technologyand scientific management，the largest and best equippedoffice park of all Beijing’s suburbs，the first locally runsuburban university classroom building in Beijing andthe first locally operated suburban travel agency in Beijing.
Hancunhe has become a prime example of a city inthe new socialist countryside.
Hancunhe was formerly known as the“uncaringriver.”The true picture of the poverty-stricken lives of the people was a“low-lying stinking Luban Park ditch with water all over the place.Clear days were marred by clouds ofdust and rain turned the area into a sea of mud.Cropsoften failed and the residents were forced to eat wildvegetables a good deal of the year.Few people had heavyovercoats and the houses were made of mud.Every yearthey looked forward to good times and constantly askedwhen things would get better.”In 1978 Tian Xiong，secretaryof the village Party branch，with the support ofthe village Party branch，took advantage of the village’slarge number of mud tile workers to form the HancunheConstruction Brigade.After more than two decades ofhard work，the Hancunhe Construction Brigade has developedinto a large state-owned construction group withgrade A assets—the Beijing Hanjian Group.Hanjian hascourageously seized opportunities and steadfastly strivedto bring honor to Beijing with the group’s quality，speed，safety，and code of conduct while battling against fiercecompetition in the construction market.Tian Xiong and his colleagues never forgot the importance of agricultureas the foundation of the economy while they were developingthe group’s construction and industrial operations.
The group has invested more than 10 million yuanin agriculture over the last several years to buy nearly100 pieces of advanced agricultural machinery to completelymechanize operations on 2，000 mu of farmlandfrom planting to harvest so that only 20 or so people areneeded for agricultural production work in normal years.
Grain production in Hancunhe has consistently exceededone ton per mu since 1992，and for four years in a row theFangshan District government has named Hancunhe asa“farm with good economy of scale.”Total income forthe village in 1998 was 825 million yuan，all taxes paid tothe state totaled 33.56 million yuan and the average percapita income was 7，600 yuan.Hancunhe has been listedas“a national model civilized town or village.”
Development of the collective sector of the economy of Hancunhe has resulted in fundamental improvement inthe lives of the villagers.All homes in the village have themost modern home appliances.The traditional pattern ofwork and life of“working from sunup to sundown”and“face to the yellow earth，back to the sky”has been completelyreplaced by life in a modern garden city.A total of518 houses and 20 multi-story residential dwellings in avariety of styles have been built in the village.The poor“uncaring river”has become a city in the new socialistcountryside with a full range of public facilities in whichall types of businesses are booming.Residents all live inapartments and houses and people live good lives.
In addition to developing both agriculture and industry，Hancunhe has been actively expanding its tourismsector.Large numbers of tourists all over the world，visitHancunhe to eat local home-cooked food，stay in thehomes of local residents，see the new socialist countryside，and enjoy fireworks at night with the locals duringthe Chinese New Year celebrations.