Two Way Journey between City and Township, Revelation of "Ten Million Projects" Part 2: The Road to Integration Rural | Urban and Rural | Revelation
Wang Xiangli, Lianfeng Village, Fengqiao Town, Nanhu District, Jiaxing City
At 6 o'clock in the morning, the first bus route 101 met Chaoyang and departed on time from Daxin Road Station in Jiaxing City. The entire journey takes about 60 minutes, passing through Nanhu Scenic Area and Central Park, heading towards towns and villages such as Yuxin and Fengqiao.
"In the past, we carried the burden and took the bus to the city to sell peaches. Now, city people take the bus to the village to admire flowers, pick fruits, and eat farmhouse fun." In the peach ripening season, in the plantation adjacent to Sanxing Village Station on Route 101, the villagers welcome a group of guests with joy.
Write a vivid chapter on the handshake between the city and the countryside. Over the past 20 years, guided by the coordinated development of agriculture, rural areas, and farmers, Zhejiang has deeply promoted the "Ten Million Project" and continuously narrowed the urban-rural gap. At present, the "20 minute medical and health service circle" and "30 minute public service circle" in rural areas have basically formed, and the income ratio of urban and rural residents has narrowed from 2.43 in 2003 to 1.90 in 2022, leading the country in terms of balanced level.
At the beginning of this year, Zhejiang deployed the implementation of the "Thousand Village Demonstration and Ten Thousand Village Renovation" project to enhance the carrying capacity of county towns, further integrating the planning and promotion of "cities" and "townships". After experiencing the magnificent transformation of the vast countryside, can you still "see the mountains, see the water, and remember the homesickness"? How to reshape the urban-rural relationship through the "Ten Million Project"? In the process of exploring Chinese path to modernization, how does Zhejiang get out of the new speed of urban-rural integration development? Recently, we visited Jiaxing, a district city with the smallest income gap between urban and rural residents in the province, to touch the pulse of urban-rural interaction.
Solving problems from the root
153060, during the crouching period, Jiaxing people enthusiastically talked about a set of numbers——
Within 15 minutes, all towns and villages can take the expressway; Within 30 minutes, direct access to county centers; Within 60 minutes, the city center will connect with surrounding cities.
From the density of urban and rural road networks, we can see the progress of urban-rural integration. Deng Jianhua, Deputy Director of Jiaxing Agriculture and Rural Bureau, said that since the release of the urban-rural integration development plan in 2004, the local government has promoted the integration of transportation, water supply and other infrastructure with the same standards and network, coordinated the balanced allocation of public resources such as elderly care and medical care, and achieved the results of rural residents sharing the reform and development.
Huoju Village, Xincheng Town, Xiuzhou District, is 15 kilometers away from the city center. Previously, 1960 villagers dreamed of living in the city. Nowadays, people say, "I don't want to move even if I give money."
The asphalt road leads directly to the village entrance, and the supermarket enters the village. The library is located on the second floor of the Party and Mass Service Center, and there is also a cultural auditorium and a home-based elderly care service center... "We all have what is in the city, and we also have what is not in the city," sighed Zhang Qiusheng, the secretary of the village party branch.
Ultimately, the root cause of the disorderly development of urban and rural areas lies in the previous concept of "valuing cities over rural areas". The key to achieving integrated development lies in reshaping the urban-rural relationship.
The "Ten Million Project", as a "bull nose" project that coordinates urban and rural areas, adheres to the equal status of rural and urban areas. It has historically changed the tradition of government funding for urban construction, village and collective self financing for rural construction, and has overcome the misconception of the contradiction between building new rural areas and promoting urbanization. It has also rewritten the binary opposition pattern of infrastructure and public services, which is "there are cities but no townships, more cities and fewer townships, and higher cities and lower townships".
Not only does Zhejiang fundamentally reshape its concept and promote seamless urban-rural integration, but it also opens up loopholes in the system and equalizes the urban-rural treatment gap.
At one time, a piece of registered residence represented identity, resulting in differences in resources and welfare such as education and employment between urban and rural areas. In 2008, Jiaxing implemented a new policy, officially abolishing the division between agriculture and non-agriculture, and unifying the identity identification on household registration to "residents"; Since 2013, Deqing has launched the supporting reform of the registered residence system to eliminate the urban-rural differences in public policies such as housing security and social assistance one by one
Understand what farmers think and what rural areas lack, systematically manipulate the urban-rural relationship, and then fundamentally solve the problem. This inspiration from the "Ten Million Project" can still guide us to improve the completeness of infrastructure and the convenience of public services today.
What is more rare is that when infrastructure and public services are integrated into urban and rural areas, Zhejiang does not transform rural areas into cities. Instead, it coordinates urban and rural development on the premise of embodying the rural landscape and paying attention to the local flavor. This is an important principle of implementing the "Ten Million Project" in Zhejiang over the past 20 years.
At first glance, Lianfeng Village in Fengqiao Town, Nanhu District has a caf é, asphalt village roads, and an intelligent garbage sorting station, exuding a modern atmosphere. Going deep into it, one can also discover that the Taohua Island scenic spot follows the natural texture, with pink walls and black tiles of residential buildings outlined along the village terrain, small bridges, flowing water, and flowers surrounding it, creating a picturesque rural scenery in northern Zhejiang. Li Zhengfeng, the secretary of the village party committee, said, "You can see the scenery and homesickness. The countryside is a beautiful home for farmers and a beautiful garden for the city."
In fact, due to the preservation of rural characteristics and traditional culture, and the increasing demand for a better life of the people, the comprehensive development of rural areas has ushered in an opportunity, and the two-way flow of urban and rural resources has opened a window.
Aerial photography of high standard farmland in Jiaxing City
Revitalizing Rural Value
Say goodbye to Torch Village and come to Shengfeng Village, Youchegang Town, Xiuzhou. Here is the typical Yangtang Wetland in Jiangnan, which also gathers three intangible cultural heritage sites: sugar cake carving skills, shipbuilding skills, and farmer paintings.
In recent years, the local area has explored its natural and cultural advantages, creating scenic spots such as Xiqianmu Dang and Tanggao Guan. Combining fish farming and diamond farming methods, ecological parks and live streaming bases have been established. At present, Shengfeng Village has become the preferred leisure destination for surrounding residents, with a per capita disposable income of 45592 yuan in 2022.
"The integration of urban and rural areas is not only driven by cities, but also by promoting cities and complementing urban and rural areas." Deng Jianhua said that the key is to revitalize the "existence" of rural areas, make every inch of land and every landscape full of charm, and demonstrate true value, thereby changing the fate of rural areas being radiated and transfused, and promoting the modernization of Chinese style agriculture and rural areas.
Practice has shown that Zhejiang not only makes good use of institutional mechanisms, such as the "separation of three rights" of homesteads and GEP accounting reforms, to grant equal rights and interests to rural and urban resources, but also respects development laws, leverages market advantages, and opens up channels for equal exchange and free flow of urban and rural factors.
Wuyi Village, Chengxi Street, Yiwu City, has sounded the first hammer of cross village bidding for the qualification rights of homesteads. The village sold 3500 square meters of residential land qualification rights through public auction. 31 rural residents within the city area competed at an average price of 32900 yuan per square meter, enjoying the right to build houses and mortgage on their homesteads. Villagers such as He Youyin voluntarily withdrew some of their homestead qualification rights and obtained substantial income.
Looking at Zhejiang, from bidding for homesteads, to the entry of collectively operated land into the market, from pledging idle agricultural property rights, to forestry carbon sequestration and trading, innovative measures have been taken one by one to transform rural resources from "dead rights" to "live rights" and from "dead prices" to "live prices", helping to build a unified urban-rural market with "equal rights, equal prices, and equal responsibilities", and injecting vitality into the development of industries such as homestays and cultural tourism. Taking the revitalization of idle rural houses in Shaoxing as an example, a total of over 11.9 billion yuan of social capital has been introduced so far.
Thanks to the flourishing development of new business models, the existence of rural areas has met the growing demand for an enjoyable lifestyle for urban and rural residents. "Urban areas are better than rural areas, and rural areas make cities more yearning" has become a reality in Zhejiang.
Currently, in the process of promoting the iterative upgrade from "thousand village demonstration and ten thousand village rectification" to "thousand village future and ten thousand village common prosperity", various regions in Zhejiang are continuously innovating ways to activate rural values. For example, the strong village companies and "Liangshan" cooperatives that have sprung up like mushrooms after rain have made rural areas the main market entities and have greater energy.
In Taoyuan Village, Yanguan Town, Haining, Qiangcun Company collects and stores land, improves facilities, and Zhejiang Tasha Horticulture Co., Ltd. "moves in", greatly improving resource utilization efficiency. Village Party Secretary Jin Zhenghua said that in the future, with the sinking of development factors such as talent, technology, and data, and the rise of rural characteristic resources, the relationship between urban and rural areas will become closer, interdependent, market-oriented, and symbiotic.
Xincun Point, Taoyuan Village, Yanguan Town, Haining City
Make good use of system concepts
To do rural affairs well, we cannot limit ourselves to rural areas. We should regard rural and urban areas as an organic whole, coordinate and promote them systematically. This is the experience gained from Zhejiang's promotion of the "Ten Million Project" over the past 20 years.
Taking the improvement of medical services as an example, in 2021, the construction of the Haiyan Innovation Medical Community will not only build 87 village health service stations, pair with 9 grassroots medical and health institutions and 2 county-level hospitals, but also establish a county-level public health information platform to achieve comprehensive sharing of medical resources, talents, and other resources. At present, the medical consultation rate in Haiyan County has exceeded 90% and has been selected as an excellent case of national grassroots health work in 2022.
When planning and promoting the integration of urban and rural areas, Zhejiang attaches great importance to the balance of multiple goals, using a combination of punches to shape major changes.
Xiuzhou Rural Housing Renovation Cluster, Torch Village is a pilot project. When constructing resettlement communities, the local government simultaneously explores the mechanism of paid withdrawal of homesteads, innovates the registration and filing system for urban farmers, and develops rural industries. Villagers are not only able to work locally nearby, but also retain the rights and interests of village collective economic cooperatives, such as share dividends. At present, 98% of farmers voluntarily "go upstairs" and live in concentrated areas, achieving a "dual wheel drive" of farmer urbanization and new urbanization.
Currently, from Zhejiang to the whole country, it is clear to promote the new urbanization with county towns as important carriers. From urbanization, to urbanization, and then to new urbanization, it reveals the continuous transformation of urban and rural development strategies. This means that we need to systematically sort out the relationships between counties, towns, and villages, further strengthen the county town, and play a gathering, radiating, and driving role.
These fields have been explored in various parts of Zhejiang. For example, Anji connects the planning of beautiful county towns, charming towns, and scenic villages, creating scenic areas such as the source of the Huangpu River, the hometown of Changshuo, and the fragrance of white tea, forming a beautiful pattern of stars and moons scattered throughout the entire region.
And Pinghu, taking the construction of the agricultural economic development zone as the fulcrum, has successively attracted more than 200 agricultural related subjects, gathered land, science and technology, talents and other elements, realized the upgrading of the traditional planting and breeding single mode to the whole industrial chain of primary, secondary and tertiary industries, driven the development of surrounding villages and increased farmers' income, and brought inspiration for how to enlarge the allocation of various resources in the county and smooth the flow to the countryside.
City and township are the two major spatial forms of human production and life. The word "integration" refers to the process of narrowing the gap, the interaction between urban and rural areas, and the continuous modernization of each individual living in it.
Standing at a high starting point, reshaping urban-rural relations, promoting urban-rural circulation, and building a community with a shared future for urban and rural areas, we look forward to Zhejiang opening a new chapter of integrated urban-rural development.
On June 20th, the front page of Zhejiang Daily published "The Road to Integration, Two Way Journey between City and Township - Revelation of the" Ten Million Project "Part 2.". The full text is as follows:
