Tourists enjoy the facilities at "the grassland over the cloud" in Anji. [WANG GANG/FOR CHINA DAILY]

Job creation

Local policies not only attract business starters with innovative ideas, but also lure regular young workers.

Qiu Lei, a native of Qingshanwu village in Zhejiang's Tonglu county, has returned to his hometown to work as a manager at a small high-end hotel.

The 26-year-old is happy with the monthly salary of about 5,000 yuan, plus the annual bonus he receives at end of the year.

The hotel has 13 rooms, each costing about 1,500 to 2,000 yuan per night. Qiu's clients are mostly people from the prosperous Yangtze River Delta region, who like to enjoy quiet weekends in the countryside.

"I was born and raised here (in the Anji countryside) and I am happy to stay here to enjoy a quiet, calm life," he said, noting that the satisfactory income has encouraged him to stay.

The tourism boom in the Zhejiang countryside has offered more young people opportunities to find jobs with decent incomes. That is encouraging them to live and work in the rural areas, injecting new life and helping to achieve the goal of common prosperity.

When cities are not the only alternative for young people and country life becomes an option, it demonstrates that the gap between rural and urban areas has been further reduced, thus boosting common prosperity.

Tourists enjoy the facilities at "the grassland over the cloud" in Anji. [WANG GANG/FOR CHINA DAILY]

In June, China issued a guideline on building Zhejiang into a demonstration zone for achieving common prosperity. Under the guideline, the province will strive to achieve the goal by 2035, by which time its per capita GDP and the incomes of urban and rural residents should have reached the standards of developed countries.

Last year, Zhejiang's per capita GDP was 113,000 yuan, and the incomes of its urban and rural residents were the highest seen in all provincial level areas across the country for 21 years and 37 years, respectively.

Zhejiang was selected as a pilot zone because it is a comparatively wealthy province and the urban-rural gap is small, according to Ha Zengyou, director of the department of employment, income distribution and consumption at the National Development and Reform Commission.

The province has formulated a practical, detailed plan to implement the guideline.

Under the plan, by 2025, 80 percent of households will have annual disposable income of between 100,000 yuan and 500,000 yuan. Meanwhile, 45 percent of households in the province will have annual disposable income of between 200,000 yuan and 600,000 yuan.

"The problem of unbalanced and inadequate development is still pronounced, and promoting common prosperity for all people is a long-term, arduous historic task," Ha said, adding that he believes Zhejiang can provide a successful example for the whole country to promote common prosperity.