The youth activity center of Gangnan Village. [Photo by Wen Bo]

Opposite the Zhennan Primary School in Gangnan Village, Guzhen Town, a unique architectural complex combined with blue, red and yellow containers is particularly eye-catching. Over a year ago, it was the former sales center of a residential community. But now it has become the youth activity center of Gangan Village, one of the national civilized villages, after renovation.

Part of the containers has turned into a two-story book house for the villagers, of which the first floor is now open to the public. The containers also have training rooms for such activities as dancing, Taekwondo, and painting and calligraphy as well as early education. Some public welfare training courses for adults are also organized here.

It is forward-thinking to run a youth activity center in the village. "We need a place for children to improve their comprehensive quality", said Deng Qiaoling, who started to work as the publicity commissary in Gangnan Village two years ago.

Gangnan Village enjoys a history of 800 years. The former Jingxing Academy, one of the top 10 academies in Zhongshan, was located in the village. Gangnan Village was crowned as "Civilized Village of Guangdong" in 2009 and "National Civilized Village" in 2011. 

Solid cultural foundation and quality educational resources of Gangnan Village could facilitate the operation of a culture and art training base, which could accordingly encourage more children to join art activities and improve their comprehensive quality, Deng said.

At that time, properties in the residential community "Jiangnan Coast" were just sold out, with the sales center being left unused for years. The sales center covers more than 2,000 square meters, including an indoor space of over 1,000 square meters and a spacious parking area. Thereupon, Deng put forward the idea of turning the sales center an activity place for youths. Her plan was immediately supported by many villagers.

After investigation, Gangnan Village partnered up with a professional agency to run the youth activity center in half-public welfare and half-market oriented operation mode. At present, children in Gangan Village can take professional training courses for only a few hundred yuan.

According to the cooperation agreement, the operating agency is required to organize a certain number of public welfare courses and provide some activity places for the villagers for free. Hence, a public welfare book house is grown out of the containers.