THE almost 70 villas might seem a little out of place in a small village in Dapu County of Meizhou, but they were paid for by people who grew up in the small county. They are actually gifts from residents who made it big in Shenzhen.

    Villagers are allowed to live in them free of charge, according to a village deputy chief, surnamed Guo, yesterday’s Southern Metropolis Daily reported.

    Guo said that these entrepreneurs have spent approximately 70 million yuan (US$11.28 million) in building these villas in the village.

    “Most of them are doing all sorts of businesses in Shenzhen, but they are not willing to be identified,” said Guo.

    Successful businesspeople giving back to their hometowns is not limited to Meizhou but happens in villages across China, the Daily said.

    All across China, wealthy people are sending money back to their hometowns. These people are often called “country elites.”

    In most cases, these elites were born into poor families, but became rich doing business in big cities like Guangzhou and Shenzhen.

    Most donations are not made in the form of villas, but go to education.

    One of the most renowned “country elites” is Li Ka-shing, a respected Hong Kong tycoon originally from a small village in Chaozhou. He has become one of the richest people in Asia.

    Li’s donations were used to build Shantou University in 1981 and he had donated 3.61 billion yuan in total to the university by the end of 2014.

    The philanthropic tycoon has promised to donate another 4.96 billion yuan to the university.

    Official statistics show that Shantou has received more than 8.62 billion yuan from Chinese people all over the world, about 7.3 billion of which went to education. (Zhang Qian)