A retired villager named Li zhengzhong faces a quandary not shared by many in China.

He has to decide whether to continue living in a European-style villa he bought in 2007 or move into luxury accommodation in a new five-star, 3 billion yuan (US$470 million) hotel in his village of Huaxi north of Shanghai in Jiangsu Province.

Li's family and 200 others in Huaxi are shareholders in the Long Hope International Hotel, the eighth tallest building in China. Their village has become a showcase of former leader Deng Xiaoping's famous admonition: To get rich is glorious.

Huaxi is said to be the richest village in China. It has been attracting worldwide attention for its ostentatious splash of wealth in a country eager to celebrate decades of economic prosperity.

The average annual income of a Huaxi villager was 85,000 yuan last year, comparing with about 32,000 yuan for the average Shanghai resident. Each family owns at least one villa and a car.

Villagers like 60-year-old Li who invested in the 74-story hotel are given the option of moving into one of the luxury suites. He's not quite sure he wants to do that. At best, he said, he's just "middle class" in opulent surroundings like these.

The Long Hope dwarfs all other buildings in Jiangsu and has become a symbol for the hopes and aspirations of other rural areas of China.

Some have questioned such an unbridled display of wealth, arguing that the money would be better spent on research into new hybrid rice strains or basic improvements to daily life in other rural areas of the province.

Is Huaxi's hotel a showcase or just a show-off?

Wu Xie'en, Party Secretary of the village and president of the Huaxi Group, a Shenzhen-listed company, said the building is a draw card for the local tourism industry, which in turn will bring fame and fortune to the village.

"We are always being questioned by outsiders, but time will prove us correct," Wu said.

Much of the current success of the village is laid at the feet of his 84-year-old father, Wu Renbao, whose entrepreneurial skills created an economic micro-climate where industry thrived and once-poor villagers became millionaires.

A huge gold globe on top of the hotel, glittering under the sun, can be seen for several kilometers away.

The hotel features the largest banquet hall in Asia, capable of serving 1,600 people, and the biggest revolving restaurant in Asia sitting in the gold dome at the top. Forty-five elevators boasting the world's fastest speed of 10 meters per second take guests to the top of the building in 40 seconds.

The hotel also has five luxury clubs, each adorned with a one-ton bull made of gold, silver, bronze, iron and tin.

In fact, the whole building is swathed in gold, a symbol of prosperity in China. Gold foil envelopes the walls and even the floor of the hotel's Gold Club. In the banquet hall, the dishes, chopsticks and spoons are gilded.

"The wide use of gold is to remind villagers that 'good faith is gold,'" Wu Xie'en said.

Still, questions remain about how such a once ignominious, poor rural area managed to turn its fortunes around so dramatically?

While most other Chinese villages were allocating land to largely develop agriculture, Wu Renbao began building hardware, steel and fabric factories around 1970s. The village boasted total assets of 100 million yuan by 1991 with more than 20 factories. Wu amassed a fortune from all his factories and established the Huaxi Group in 1994.

Wu also invested the money outside the village on a wide range of projects including shipping, logistic, aviation and tourism that boosted his capital rapidly.

All the 2,000 villagers like Li are shareholders of the group. Each of them can receive around 200,000 yuan share of profits every year.

However, they only receive 20 percent of the money and give the rest to the group for further investments.

They can get 10 percent bonus every year from all the money they give and use their shares to invest in various projects of the group, such as the Long Hope hotel.

Li said the total shares of his and his brothers' families were worth over 10 million yuan which they used to invest in the Long Hope hotel.

The total production value of the group of more than 45 billion yuan now has propelled it to be the 94th richest corporation in China.

But Wu Renbao himself is said to have donated all his salaries and bonus of over 1 billion yuan back to the village. The house he lives is among the oldest and smallest in the village.

"One billion yuan will make me no happier, but I feel happy now to see the villagers are getting rich," Wu Renbao said.

Huaxi credits its success to the village patriarch Wu Renbao.

The elder Wu was named Party Secretary of Huaxi in 1961. He led his village to an income of 1 million yuan in 1969 through the operation of a hardware factory, albeit illegal at that time.

Shortly after China began its economic reforms and its opening-up policy in 1979, Wu added steel, cement and fabric factories to the mix, eventually turning a township industry into a sprawling empire later incorporated as the Huaxi Group.

The group itself now has total assets valued at 16 billion yuan.

Wu has even published his own version of Chairman Mao's famous Red Book. Its slogans - like "Socialism or capitalism; no matter which as long as it makes people wealthy" - are painted everywhere in the village. There's also a local song, "Good Party Secretary," paying tribute to Wu.

Though he handed power to his fourth son Wu Xie'en in 2002, the elder Wu remains a formidable force in the village fortunes.

"Our old party chief is not an ordinary person, so we carry out all his decisions without hesitation," said Sun Jingao, 70, who once worked in the "underground hardware factory" and is now an investor in the hotel.

Wu Xie'en said his father's ties to high-level governmental officials have helped pave the road to success. Pictures of him shaking hands with current or former top leaders in China adorn the village.

At a ceremony on October 8 marking the official opening of the hotel and the 50th anniversary of the village, Huaxi played host to a glitterati of political figures from all levels of government in China and to the international media.

The local largesse doesn't end with the luxury hotel. On Turtle Mountain, a low ridge behind the village, a theme park has been built, featuring replicas of the wonders of the world, such as the Great Wall, Capitol Hill in Washington and the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. Perhaps the most impressive site is the "Tian'anmen Square" built on top of the mountain.

"Villagers had few chances to see these world wonders, so I brought them back to Huaxi," said Wu Renbao.

He also installed a crocodile pond to remind villagers to "be prepared for danger in times of safety."