Guangxi locals are protesting the relocation policies being implemented to make way for the 710-kilometer-long high-speed railway linking Yunnan Province and Guanxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, reporting that residents are being forced to sell their homes for low prices and buy land in relocation sites for much higher.
In the west-central county of Pingguo, more than 600 households are being forced to relocate by the government to make way for the railway. More than 80 percent of the affected villagers have expressed dissatisfaction with the compensation, saying it will not be enough to buy land elsewhere or build new homes.
"If I proactively want to sell you the land, a discount is reasonable," said Yang Xiutung, a Pingguo villager. "Now you want me to move and low-ball me, eventually getting another 10 to 20 percent discount. Is it reasonable?"
In April 2003, Baise City in Pingguo created a five-to-10-year plan to move more than 500,000 of the city's rural workers outward to other cities. The plan involved training them in different skills to prepare them for new jobs in different cities.
The Pingguo section of the construction requires 600 households to be located, 52 percent of the total relocations allotted for the project.
In 2011, there were speculations that the railway would run by Lvcheng Road, where 200 households are located. This was confirmed in 2013.
There have also been issues of the government misinforming villagers to persuade them not to fight the relocation.
Initially, the government promised that everyone's land would be replaced with new land in other cities. However, among more than 600 households affected by the relocation, only about 100 have legal certificates for their new residence.
People were told that they would only need to pay a fee of 30 yuan per square meter to legally own the new land, with the permission to sell it or build on it.
However, while the average housing price in Pingguo is almost 3,000 yuan per square meter, the standard compensation offered by the government is only 300 yuan. This price could even go down if their home is old.