FU Jinlong, a 71-year-old resident of Lianmin Village in the Pudong New Area, recently signed an agreement with promoters to rent out his two-story house which will be redeveloped and used for bed-and-breakfast accommodation, also known as minsu.

Lianmin Village, a water town, is about 5 kilometers away from the Shanghai Disney Resort. It has little over 1,000 households, most of them growing paddy or working at factories.

The area was earmarked by Shanghai to support minsu projects. Developers will redevelop 50 houses — rented out from the villagers for 15 years — into exquisitely designed villas in the first phase of the project.