The resettlement of 330,000 people in Henan and Hubei by 2014 as part of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project has begun. Yang Guang finds out how the first few families are coping

Opposite an extensive expanse of wheat fields stands lines of red-roofed houses, so new their white walls sparkle in the sun.

They are the homes of 41 migrant families, who have been resettled in Laolijia village in Xiangfan, Hubei province, to make way for the central route of the massive South-to-North Water Diversion Project, designed to channel water from the Yangtze River to Beijing, Tianjin, Henan, and Hebei.

These migrants, all natives of Miaowan village of Hubei's Danjiangkou city, are part of the pilot project to resettle 171 migrants.

The project envisages the ultimate resettlement of 330,000 people in Henan and Hubei by 2014 - China's largest since the Three Gorges Project.

Zheng Jiazhong is polishing the handle of a hoe on a wooden stool outside his two-story residence, the interior of which is bare and unpainted.

Carpentry tools stacked in one corner; a cabbage, a dozen potatoes, and half a sack of rice in the kitchen; two quilts on the second floor - this is all he has in his 200 square meter house.

"I knew I wouldn't stay for long, when I moved in the middle of March," says the 67-year-old widowed carpenter. "After five days, I went to Huangji (a nearby town) to work as a carpenter."

This time he will stay for longer - till the end of June - before returning to his native village of Miaowan for the last harvest. Then he will reunite with his three sons in Shiyan, the prefecture-level city in northwest Hubei, where many of his fellow villagers do odd jobs.

"I can make 120 yuan ($17.5) a day as a carpenter in Shiyan, while in Huangji, I make at most 70 yuan ($10.2)," he explains.

Zheng is not the only one who has decided to leave the village of his resettlement. In fact, only 10 of the 41 relocated families are staying. Of those who have left, some have gone back to Miaowan for the harvest season; others are trying to find jobs in the cities.

"It's hard to make a living solely on farmland," Zheng says, referring to the 1.5-mu (one-tenth of a hectare) allocated to each migrant, as per national policy.

Asked whether he misses Miaowan, Zheng looks uneasy, repeatedly twisting the straw-hat strap in his hand.

"How can I not? Even if I work outside for just a few months, I will miss home and want to go back."

He turns to hang the straw-hat on the bare concrete wall.

On its broad golden brim is scrawled the word "Beijing" in red ink.

"But Beijing must have water to drink; the country's construction must be supported," continues Zheng, after a brief hesitation.

The door of a house further down from Zheng's is ajar. Wen Xingfen is on the second floor, busy with her first piece of cross-stitch embroidery.

Everything in the house is crisp and new - from the crimson wooden furniture, the shining stove, the 42-inch LCD TV, to the flower-patterned bedsheets.

"We brought nothing old to the new house," the 41-year-old housewife says. "We had lived in the old ever since we married," she says with a shy smile, "and now my older son is already 21".

This son has been serving in the PLA in Hebei province for the past four years. His last visit home was more than a year ago.

"Last week when he called, he complained that he didn't know where home was anymore," Wen says.

Huang Chaohai, her husband, is outside building a barn, in preparation for the year's harvest.

He has contracted 160 mu (about 10 hectares) of farmland from those relocated villagers who have moved out of Laolijia.

"We used to grow oranges and last year we made 30,000 ($4,392); this year, if everything goes well, I think we will be able to make 50,000 ($7,320) from corn," Huang estimates.

The wheat stalks swaying gently in the early summer breeze hint at a life with few interruptions.

The biggest news since March has been the marriage of migrant Chen Weiwei, 29, and local villager Qi Dan, 24, on May 11.

The newly-weds are now running a small grocery store in a nearby town, while their parents remain in the village to cultivate the land.

"Integration with local villagers will greatly help the migrants adapt to the new environment," says Li Guangxian, an official from the district resettlement bureau. "At the very least, it will help them pick up local farm skills much faster."

Li, 34, is speaking from experience. His family too was resettled from Danjiangkou to Xiangfan in the 1960s, when the Danjiangkou reservoir was built.

"Life was a lot harder for migrants at that time," he says, recalling the shabby mud house where he was born.