(Reuters/Jason Lee)
Tourist cars carry visitors towards a portrait of the Soviet state founder Vladimir Lenin at Dong Fang Hong Square in Nanjie village, on September 25, 2012.
In Nanjie Village, locals still wake to loudspeakers blaring “The East Is Red,” the classic anthem of People’s Republic of China during the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s. Nanjie, with more than 3,100 residents, is touted as one of the last models of communist China, where the principles of the late Chairman Mao still strictly guide the people’s daily lives. In the 1980s, when the rest of China was introducing market reforms, Nanjie went the other direction, collectivizing its farms and industries. Aside from free housing, healthcare, food rations and education, locals working in the village’s factories receive an average salary of 2,500 yuan (about $400).
