Feng Chengwen measures the verticality of a wall he built in Jibaoyu village in Yiyuan county, Shandong province, on Aug 10. [Photo by Zhao Dongshan and Fu Youmin/For China Daily]

Trained as a bricklayer, Feng Chengwen helps fellow villagers build roads, homes

Feng Chengwen has been the Party secretary of Jibaoyu village in Yiyuan county, Shandong province, since 2017. Though he now holds a prominent position in his community, the 56-year-old, who has been a Party member for 25 years, has not forgotten his training as a bricklayer.

While working to improve Jibaoyu's infrastructure in 2017, he helped instruct villagers as they built a 5-kilometer sealed road to connect the village with the outside world and lay 1,800 meters of internal road. During construction, Feng often laid the bricks himself.

The following year, as the village was short of funds, Feng encouraged the villagers to work with him and upgrade their houses themselves. Rock by rock and brick by brick, they not only built stone houses and a road paved with stones, but also built fencing along internal roads using branches cropped from fruit trees.

With a budget of barely 1 million yuan ($154,000), about 400 villagers from 158 families volunteered to participate in the construction and managed to complete the projects originally estimated to cost over 3 million yuan.

Currently, 28 homestays are open in the village, which is becoming a local tourist hot spot.

Villagers volunteer to pave a square with stones. [Photo by Zhao Dongshan and Fu Youmin/For China Daily]

Feng and other volunteers rest at the construction site. [Photo by Zhao Dongshan and Fu Youmin/For China Daily]