WELL-OFF: Zhang Qingping, a farmer in Beihe Village, Zouping County, has a much better life now than he did 20 years ago (BY HU YUE)

The past decades have witnessed numerous rags-to-riches stories among farmers in Zouping, a county 70 km from Jinan, capital city of Shandong Province. Among them is Zhang Qingping who lives in Beihe Village on the county town's outskirts.

Shy, inarticulate and wearing a dusty blue sweater, the 34-year-old Zhang is the epitome of modern farmers of north China. Enjoying a much better life now than the older generation, Zhang considers himself one of the lucky ones who have been able to bask in the glow of the country's economic reforms.

It is not difficult to see how lucky Zhang has been. He lives in a spacious one-story brick house with his wife and two daughters, where the rooms are equipped with everything, including modern appliances and exquisite furniture that one expects to find in a comfortable home. Only a small plot of land planted with vegetables beside their backyard provides some clues about Zhang's profession as a farmer.

But Zhang is actually more than that. Beside farming, he works as a technician, providing support to several construction companies in the village.

"Doing an extra job off the land is commonplace in our village," Zhang told Beijing Review, in the thick accent of the eastern province of Shandong. "Mechanized farming could save us much time for doing something else."

The most significant change to his life happened in 1999, when village leaders decided to redesign the village's layout by removing all the old adobe houses, including Zhang's, and building brick ones, according to Yan Shengqing, a former Party secretary in the village.

The cost of each new house was 30,000 yuan ($4,392), an astronomical amount for a hand-to-mouth farmer like Zhang. "I pulled out my life savings for it," he said.

Born and raised in a dirt-poor family, Zhang can still remember the grinding poverty he grew up with in the old house.