Located in Sanmen County, Taizhou City of Zhejiang Province, Chengxi Village has 795 households with 2,255 people and 101 CPC members. Since the establishment of the village Party branch in 1957, there have been nine Party secretaries, namely, Zhang Zhenghe, Jin Jigui, Zhang Yiqi, Ye Jiafa, Zhang Hongjiang, Zhang Hongjun, Zhang Ping, Zhang Yijia, and Zhang Guojin.

Over the past 64 years, the nine sussesive Party secretaries have always kept in mind their original aspiration of enriching the people, and led the villagers to turn the poor and backward village into a "Well-off Demonstration Village". With a fixed asset of 360 million yuan, the village now generates an annual income of tens of millions of yuan from collective economy, and a per capita income of 80,000 yuan.

How did the village achieve such great changes? By reading through the 35 diaries recorded by the nine successive secretaries, one can discover the secrets behind the tremendous changes, and the footprints of the village Party branch in leading the people towards their dreams from 1957 to the present.

In the 1960s, when Chengxi Village was called "Fanshen Village", the poverty-stricken villagers still lived in leaky wooden houses with inadequate food and clothing. Then secretary Zhang Zhenghe often said, "f we don't have enough to eat, what can we do?" What he desired for most was to provide the villagers with enough food. So, he led the people to reclaim land, build water conservancy projects, and farm scientifically. As a result, grain production increased year by year, and the villagers no longer suffered from starvation. He recorded the exciting moment in the notebook in 1963: "In 1963, the total grain output reached 406,245 jin (203.1225 tons), an increase of 27% over 1962." That year, Chengxi Village won the city's "food production champion", and was awarded a big ox, which caused a sensation throughout the county. You must know that the value of an ox at that time was no less than that of a BMW or Mercedes-Benz today.

"With enough to eat, the people still have no money. What should we do?" The 1978 diary gave the answer: "Reform. It is risky to be first movers. Still, we need to think out of the box. As long as it is beneficial to the village, we shall be brave to give it a try." In this way, with the pioneering spirit, successive secretaries joined the reform and opening-up drive. They vigorously developed industry and commerce, and established a hardware factory, a transformer fittings factory and the county's first village-level farmer's market. In 1985, Zhang Yiqi, the third Party secretary, set up a baking-free brick factory, allowing all villagers to receive an annual dividend of more than 100 yuan for the first time. At that time, the price of meat at was only two yuan per kilogram.

After 30 years of development, Chengxi Village accumulated a certain amount of wealth. Then how should they further innovate and transform to achieve prosperity? In 1988, the fourth secretary Ye Jiafa took office. During his tenure, he engaged in technological transformation, plant expansion, equipment procurement and market expansion for 17 years. Under his leadership, the number of industrial and commercial enterprises of the village soared from a few to 25, which created job opportunities to more than half of the villagers. In 1995, the village became the richest among the county's "Top 100 Villages" with 100 million yuan as its assets.

With wealth come new expectations for a better life. "We hope to live in a better house, with more colorful cultural life..." Since the 1990s, the wishes of the villagers have appeared in the diaries of successive secretaries.

The well-off buildings, the Senior Villager Activity Center, the Ecological Park... dreams and blueprints came true one after another with the villagers' joint efforts. In the development of the village, successive Party secretaries always disregarded their own personal interests. In allocation of the villagers' residential buildings, there were not enough houses for every family. The sixth Party secretary Zhang Hongjun voluntarily gave up his share without any complaints.

Nowadays, every household in the village lives in a well-off building. Villagers have organized various leisure activities all by themselves, such as line dance, Tai Chi and jogging. They improved the village-level regulations for financial management, weddings and funerals, sanitation, and civilized etiquettes. With improved social conducts, the villagers' sense of happiness and satisfaction also improved. In addition, men above 55 years old and women above 50 years old can receive a sum of pension every year, and elderly people over 60 can also enjoy benefits such as group travel, physical examination, and reunion dinner each year. Besides, all villagers can receive a year-end dividend of about 5,000 yuan every year, as their life becomes better and better.

35 diary notebooks are convincing footnotes for the village's exploration of grassroots governance. It testifies to the commitment of every Party secretary to his original aspiration. In December last year, Zhang Guojin, who had worked in the two village committees for 19 years, was elected as the ninth Party secretary. In a new notebook, he began to write down his own dreams and the dreams of the villagers. This is the dream to be a good Party secretary, a secretary who keeps pace with the times and contribute his share to enrich the village. He is determined to rebuild a new Chengxi Village in the future five years.