Villages carrying farming tools on shoulders walks along a path through the newly built village. [CRIENGLISH.com]

Traditionally-styled cottages stand around a large pond blooming with lotuses in Luming Village in Chengdu, southwestern Sichuan Province, which has recovered from the grievous May 12 earthquake two years ago.

Villager Wu Jiechuan, who lost his sister in the disaster, has been busy constructing his new country-style hotel, only 10 meters from the central lotus pond.

Under a massive reconstruction plan, the village of 8,000 residences has embarked on a shift from a traditional agriculture-sustained economy into a tourism-based one.

"Villagers are seeing a completely different Luming. We will no longer live on mountains only, instead we will rely more on tourism," said Wu, who decided to stay in Luming after the earthquake and start his own business.

Like other remote villages, Luming was once a destitute area with the single cash crop: lotus. Like many in his town, Wu Jiechuan had to travel far away to find as many labor jobs as he could to support his family. After his sister passed away, the burden of responsibility for his family shifted even more onto his shoulders.

Shortly after relief efforts ended, reconstruction began in the village.

When Wu Jiechuan saw the reconstruction plan for the first time, He was amazed that not only the housing projects, but also a more sustainable development pattern had been taken into consideration. In the blueprint, the new village was to include several regions specifically for residences, cash crop planting and tourist attractions.

Wu later invested all of his savings to build the country-style hotel near his home. With the support of village committees, Wu Jiechuan is planning to open five more similar hotels around the village in the future, renovating empty farmers' houses into guest rooms.

Just two years after the calamity, most of the reconstruction projects that covered five quake-hit counties and 33 towns in the provincial capital have been completed, one year ahead of schedule.

 (CRIENGLISH.com May 14, 2010)