It is often said that the first people newly-minted millionaires hear from are car, home and insurance brokers.
The little town of Guantangcun, in Nanlang, on the eastern periphery of Zhongshan, in Guangdong province, has lately been swamped by sales representatives from BMW, Mercedes Benz, Audi and Lexus.
The agricultural village, which is where Sun Yat-sen, the so-called father of modern China, was born, has – according to observers on social media – become something of an international car trade show in miniature.
And the reason? News was posted out on WeChat that the villagers had received an average of 3.5 million yuan (US$553,000) in a land sale. The local Party secretary, Chen Zhuoyao, confirmed the payout, in which 367 people received a combined total 1.28 billion yuan.
Each villager received 1.09 million yuan before the Spring Festival, with the balance to be paid over the next 15 months.
Chen, who stressed that most beneficiaries were poor farmers, added that the family receiving the biggest payout would get 28 million yuan due to having eight members.
Guantangcun is effectively part of Nanlang, a town of 38,000 residents, and sits on the Pearl River Delta. The town is accessible on the Guangzhou-Zhuhai Intercity Mass Rapid Transit system. Except the property and insurance sales teams to be on their way there soon.
You never see such an event in USA, EU etc.