Moscow, June 3. The "A Date with China" international media delegation on May 26 toured Xipi village, located in Ningde of Southeast China's Fujian province, the China Daily reported. Like many other fishing villages in China, fishermen here catch and process seafood. However, its story is not typical, at least not if you go back eight years.
In 2013, 137 households moved from boat homes to resettlements ashore. This final migration meant all boat dwellers in the village had bid farewell to the floating life some of them had been living since birth.
Xipi village is one of the biggest boat-dweller resettlement communities in eastern Fujian. There are a total of 2,716 residents in 632 households. In addition to farming oysters, octopus, yellow croakers and other seafood, people here also process the products locally, attract investment and create jobs. In 2020, the villagers netted a per-capita income of more than 23,000 yuan, an outstanding transformation from their lives on boats in the old days.
Boat habitants traditionally lived on small wooden boats and barely made ends meet. "It's hard to believe five or six people lived on such a boat together," said Robert Nani, a Ghanaian online celebrity who had the chance to board a boat and experience what it was like.
Since the 1950s, the first boat dwellers began to move to land under government programs. "They had little museums. With the pictures and stories in the exhibits, we can see a long-term process," China Daily reporter Anthony Perry said. "Now their lives are a lot better. That's really good to see."
Since 1997, higher-level governments have attached great importance to helping fishermen in Xipi village settle ashore. Many Party members were based in the village to provide assistance, especially to poor households.
"The way China was able to announce absolute poverty had been eliminated at the end of last year - it's an amazing achievement. No country has been able to put together those numbers of people that had been helped in that way," Perry said.