The idea of voting for a trustworthy village head had never occurred to Zhao Yongxiu, a 50-year-old farmer in Dawang Village of Hebei Province about 400 kilometers from Beijing.

That is, until the arrival of a new assistant village head with a college degree.

"We had never cared about who was in the position because the appointment of 'leaders' had nothing to do with us ordinary people," said Zhao, who used to take it for granted that "leaders" made decisions and the villagers followed.

But Zhao and 1,300 other villagers changed their minds after Zhao Shufang, 27, came to work as their assistant village head shortly after graduating from Nankai University in Tianjin, one of the country's top universities, in July 2005.

"Only when the villagers trust their leaders can they live in harmony and work together to achieve wealth," she said. "But when I tried to talk about it with people, their first response was 'not interested.'"

In one month, she visited more than 300 households and finally talked them into voting.

"Zhao is a college graduate and she knows the law. After listening to her, we began to understand our rights. Last year, I voted for a person I trust," the farmer Zhao Yongxiu said.

"The villagers now vigorously participate in voting for those they like and trust and the village heads will consult villagers before making decisions," said the vice party secretary Duan Shuguo.

Duan credits the change in attitude towards voting in rural areas to college-graduate village heads like Zhao Shufang, who brought fresh ideas.

Since June 2005, the Chinese government has encouraged college graduates to work in rural areas, seeking to install at least one college graduate in every village within five years.

In Beijing, 2,000 college graduates were selected last year to work as village party secretaries. The Beijing municipal government has announced that another 3,000 college graduates will work as village officials this year.

The tight job market in urban areas has made more college graduates choose work in rural areas since the government promised them priority when seeking new jobs in government departments or large companies after three years in villages.

"But there is still a long way to go before village heads really embrace grass-roots democracy," said National People's Congress deputy Guo Chengzhi, a village head.

(Xinhua News Agency March 15, 2007)