No Joy In The ​​​​​​​Courtyard Of Happiness

China is succeeding in lifting people out of poverty, but not all are grateful.

- Kevin Hamlin

The 550 residents of Jianxin, a village in a picturesque valley three hours’ drive from Beijing, used to dwell in ramshackle houses perched on steep hills. Summer’s heavy rains often caused floods and mudslides, making the roads impassable and leaving the villagers stranded for weeks. That’s until Beijing classified Jianxin as “unfit to live” and started moving its residents into a new apartment complex of 200-plus units, with a health clinic, a day-care center, and a landscaped enclosure dubbed the Courtyard of Happiness.

There’s no question the government’s 60 million yuan ($8.8 million) investment has transformed the lives of the 163 families that have been relocated since construction wrapped up in 2016. Yet gratitude wasn’t the predominant sentiment expressed by Jianxin’s residents when this reporter paid them a visit in May. Many were angry over the lack of transparency on how the money was spent, worried about a lack of jobs, and upset about a yawning wealth gap between them and some of their neighbors.

Liang Fucai’s 100-square-meter, three-bedroom apartment is a big improvement from the old farmhouse he shared with his brother’s family. But the 56-year-old complains he has no regular income after having signed over his plot of land to the forestry bureau in exchange for 20,000 yuan: “I used to farm, but my land and old house were taken away, so now what do I eat?”