This is Huaxi, China's richest village!

Huaxi village, set up in 1961, is China's richest village. It is also called the No.1 Village of China.

Here everyone lives in a villa and owns cars -- imported cars.

Image: New houses are seen at Huaxi village in Jiangsu province.

Photograph: Carlos Barria/Reuters

. . . 

In this village of Huaxi, a booming market town of 36,000 in China's affluent eastern province of Jiangsu, every family has at least one house or villa, two cars and $250,000 in the bank.

Image: A row of new homes in Huaxi village.

Photograph: Carlos Barria/Reuters

. . . 

The villagers homes/villas are of around 4,000 sq ft to 6,000 sq ft area.

The annual sales revenue of the village is around $30.78 billion.

Image: A man watches the Huaxi village from a vantage point.

Photograph: Carlos Barria/Reuters

. . . 

One man is credited with turning around the fortunes of the village: Wu Renbao, who was the secretary of the village's local branch of the Communist Party. Read on to find out how he did it . . .

Image: A woman looks at jewellery in a shop in Huaxi village.

Photograph: Carlos Barria/Reuters

. . . 

Wu Renbao adopted a set of policies that were an amalgam of free market economics and customary principles of communism.

Image: Lu Jianmin watches television inside her house in Huaxi village.

Photograph: Carlos Barria/Reuters

. . . 

About 40 years ago, Wu Renbao, a farmer himself, propelled a movement which saw Huaxi transform itself from an agriculture-driven economy into an industrial powerhouse.

Image: A woman carrying a baby walks at a tourist area of Huaxi village.

Photograph: Carlos Barria/Reuters

. . . 

The village built factories by the hundreds and the disciplined villagers, who all work seven days a week and take breaks only once in a while, soon realised the fruits of hard labour and smart transition from agriculture to industry.

Image: Workers wait for an elevator at the construction site of a high-rise building in Huaxi village.

Photograph: Carlos Barria/Reuters

. . . 

The village itself is like no other Chinese village or city. It resembles a western suburb that has been just plucked from the American countryside and transplanted into China.

Image: An employee works at a clothes factory in Huaxi village.

Photograph: Carlos Barria/Reuters

. . . 

Officials from elsewhere in China tour Huaxi to find out how this once sleepy village, with just 576 residents in the 1950s, is now so rich and why non-local businessmen would donate million-dollar factories to buy the privilege of a local residence permit.

Image: An employee works at a clothes factory in Huaxi village.

Photograph: Carlos Barria/Reuters

. . . 

Huaxi Village has adhered to a path of 'relying on the collective economy and working for common prosperity', says People's Daily.

Image: An employee works at the Huaxi Iron and Company in Huaxi village.

Photograph: Carlos Barria/Reuters

. . . 

Big items like villas and cars are distributed in a uniform way to the villagers here.

People do not have to pay for it as the village distributes this wealth.

Image: An employee works at the Huaxi Iron and Company in Huaxi village.

Photograph: Carlos Barria/Reuters

. . . 

The construction and decoration are uniformly designed by the village, and also paid for by the village.

Image: Pollution is seen over an industrial area of  Huaxi village.

Photograph: Carlos Barria/Reuters

. . . 

Image: A woman holds a baby at a new housing area in Huaxi village.

Photograph: Carlos Barria/Reuters

. . . 

Image: A man takes pictures of a tourist area in Huaxi village.

Photograph: Carlos Barria/Reuters

. . . 

Image: A man walks in front of a painting of China's late chairman Mao Zedong in Huaxi village.

Photograph: Carlos Barria/Reuters