Bai Yingshu, 76, said he never imagined his family would live in a new, spacious apartment in his lifetime.

Rezya Malik's family lives in a new home at a residential complex in Ganhezi township, Xinjiang, that was built using financial assistance from Shanxi. More than 1,100 families have benefited from the project and moved out of a shantytown. Cui Meng / China Daily

"We had lived in a cave-house for 28 years before moving into the new home in 2011," said the retired worker from a steel mill in Fukang, a small city in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.

"The cave-house was only 36 square meters, and it once had to accommodate my family of six. Now my wife and I live in the 86-square-meter apartment. I never dared to think about living in such a nice apartment at my age."

The local government gave Bai 32,300 yuan ($5,260) in compensation for his cave-house, which was demolished to make way for a new affordable housing project, and another 35,000 yuan as a removal subsidy.

"So the new house cost me only 30,000 yuan," he said.

Bai said he is thankful toward the Fukang government as well as "those kindhearted people from Shanxi province who come here to help us".

In March 2010, the central government decided that 18 provincial-level regions including Beijing, Shanghai, Shanxi and Zhejiang, and Shenzhen, a wealthy city in Guangdong province, should allocate funds and professionals to aid Xinjiang's development over a 10-year period.