And many of the shopkeepers, managers and waiters at the restaurants and even the staff at a tropical ocean park used to be farmers around Sanya City, Xinhua news agency reported.

The government took over their farmland due to the expanding urban areas and the development of tourism in recent years.

Many rural residents found it hard to adapt without their farmland though the government gave them money in exchange for the land.

It was not easy for them to find jobs in the city due to their poor education and lack of skills, said Chen Jianguang, an expert with the Ministry of Agriculture. “They are a potential headache for urban society if they remain jobless,” Chen said.

Sanya Vice Mayor Sun Zhifu noted that many ex-farmers there have started their own businesses in the suburbs or around tourist sites with assistance from the government, and they have employed other people.

“Their businesses also contribute to the local economy now,” Sun said.

In a small village of about 2,000 residents of the Li nationality in Sanya, residents spent 4.7 million yuan, part of the money given by the government, to build a park which displays their unique ethnic culture.

The 16-hectare park now attracts 10 percent of the tourists visiting Sanya and almost 2,000 tourists went there every day during the recent seven-day Labor Day holiday.

“My family lived on part-time jobs and earned little money before the park was built but now earns more than 1,000 yuan a month,” said Li, an old woman, whose son and daughter both work for the park.

China’s urbanization level has increased 0.63 percent annually in the past 20 years, almost twice the world’s average rate.

The oversized agricultural population has greatly restrained the growth of personal incomes in rural areas, the major reason why the government is eager to push forward urbanization, said Chen Jianbo, an expert with the Development Research Center of the State Council.

(www.eastday.com 05/18/2001)