How to "win people's hearts"?, Zhejiang's "Ten Million Project" Zhejiang | Rural | People's Lives

Hangzhou, June 28th (Xinhua) - More than 90% of villages have reached the standard of beautiful countryside in the new era; The per capita disposable income of farmers has ranked first in various provinces and regions for 38 consecutive years; Over 47000 college student agricultural entrepreneurs have returned to their hometowns to start businesses... Now in Zhejiang, rural areas are becoming a "symbol" representing infinite possibilities for development.

This is a new atmosphere created by the province's consistent implementation of the "Thousand Village Demonstration and Ten Thousand Village Renovation" project in the past 20 years. Starting from strengthening the improvement of rural living environment, comprehensively promoting rural revitalization and promoting the construction of a beautiful China, Zhejiang has embarked on its own scientific path. More noteworthy is that it is also praised by farmers in the province as the most popular and beneficial thing that the Party and government have done for farmers since the implementation of the household contract responsibility system.

What has changed with the "Million Project" and how can it win people's hearts? The answer lies in the ongoing story of transformation in Zhejiang.

Creating a Beautiful "New Runway"

The dirty, disorderly and poor rural environment has been a growing problem accumulated in Zhejiang after more than 20 years of reform and opening up. This is also an important reason why the "Ten Million Project" was launched and implemented in 2003. One of the significant changes it has brought to Zhejiang in the past 20 years is the comprehensive shaping of a livable and pleasant rural living environment at the hardware level, and the comprehensive activation of rural development momentum for entrepreneurship and wealth creation based on this foundation.

"At least it won't be so difficult for our young man to start a family," said Cai Mingfu, the Secretary of the Party General Branch of Hengshanwu Village in Anji County, as he talked about the changes in the village.

He, who joined the village committee in 1998, still remembers the days before - outside the village, people were mining for a living, and vegetation was severely damaged. In the village, the sewage ditch emits a foul odor, so you should cover your nose when walking. "At that time, it was difficult for young people to start a family, villagers' income was low, and collective debt was high. The total amount of village receipts was less than 90000 yuan, and many villagers had moved out."

After the implementation of the "Ten Million Project", the village has made improvements in areas such as road hardening, garbage collection, river dredging, and village greening. More than 30000 square meters of illegal land have been demolished, more than 20000 square meters of new green space have been added, and 7 cultural and sports facilities have been built, giving it a completely new appearance.

Later, more than 30 characteristic homestays were built in the village where "washing the face" was done, with supporting facilities such as libraries and cafes, attracting more than 600 innovative and entrepreneurial talents. At the same time, more than ten cultural, tourism, and leisure projects such as the Countryside Carnival Park and the High Style Bear Art Museum are cultivated and attracted.

The young people born in the 1990s who returned to their hometown, Xiang Zilin, runs a traditional Chinese style coffee bar in the village. The popularity of tourism in the village has also attracted countless fans, with an average monthly revenue of 150000 yuan.

Last year, the village received 610000 tourists, with an operating income of 7.52 million yuan. The related industries provided more than 170 jobs for villagers, and the per capita income of farmers reached 55000 yuan.

Hengshanwu Village reflects the current appearance of rural areas in Zhejiang. The coverage rate of beautiful rural areas in the new era of the province has exceeded 90%, with 11531 A-level scenic villages and over 3 million beautiful courtyards created; 82 agricultural industrial chains with an annual output value exceeding 1 billion yuan have been established, and the total revenue from rural tourism operations has exceeded 80 billion yuan

To help rural areas embark on a beautiful "new runway", Zhejiang has made great efforts to focus on "livability and business suitability".

In terms of sewage treatment, Yao Zhaohui, a member of the Party Group and Deputy Director of the Department of Housing and Urban Rural Development of Zhejiang Province, introduced that the province has introduced the first local regulation specifically targeting rural domestic sewage treatment in the country, the "Zhejiang Province Rural Domestic Sewage Treatment Facility Management Regulations," and has successively formulated more than 40 standard specifications; 58411 treatment facilities have been built with a daily processing capacity of nearly 2.46 million tons, and the rural domestic sewage treatment rate has reached 89.2%.

In terms of improving rural roads, the transportation department of Zhejiang Province has implemented the "Rural Health Project" since 2003, increasing the length of rural roads from 37000 kilometers to 110000 kilometers, solving the problem of 19000 administrative villages and 50000 natural villages connecting to hardened roads, and creating 18 "Four Good Rural Roads" demonstration counties across the country.

In promoting industrial prosperity and beauty, the province has launched a combination of strong villages, prosperous people, and integrated rural reform. Taking the acceleration of rural management as an example, Zhejiang has promoted the activation of 100000 idle farmhouses, activating a total of 110000 farmhouses and achieving a total value of over 17 billion yuan.

Regarding the aforementioned efforts and changes, Gu Yikang, an expert on agriculture, rural areas, and farmers in Zhejiang, believes that the continuous promotion of the "Ten Million Project" and the construction of beautiful rural areas will enable more and more beautiful rural areas to combine construction and management. Managing beautiful rural areas, developing a beautiful economy, and sharing a happy life have become the new scenery of Zhejiang.

Boost the rural "spirit and spirit"

Zhejiang is currently constructing a demonstration zone for common prosperity through high-quality development, with a focus on the synchronous improvement of material and spiritual prosperity. The "Ten Million Project" has been implemented for 20 years, which has comprehensively improved the quality of life of farmers who are happy and beautiful, and comprehensively enhanced the level of rural governance with good governance and success. It has boosted the "spirit" of rural areas and laid a solid foundation for the province to walk the path of common prosperity.

Jiaxing Haining Taoyuan Village has created a "Peach Blossom Land" like environment through the implementation of the "Ten Million Project", and the development of seedlings, gold mining, and the entire industry chain of "horticulture+live streaming" have made it prosperous. "After material prosperity, everyone wants to pursue a spiritual life," said Jin Zhenghua, the village party secretary.

In recent years, the village cultural auditorium, which has more than 10 functional rooms such as dance rooms, libraries, calligraphy and painting rooms, and gyms, has been the busiest place in the village. At the time of the village love table tennis association activity, villager Xiao Yao opened the door of the cultural hall table tennis room and started warming up. "We can come here anytime and open the door at any time."

Previously, the village implemented a self management model of "one key per person" and distributed over 4000 keys to the cultural hall. After upgrading to facial recognition and fingerprint unlocking, everyone is the owner and also the administrator, which remains the biggest feature of this place. The village has also achieved a cultural hall with daily activities, monthly programs, and annual competitions, cultivating a civilized rural atmosphere.

Wang Zongming, a member of the Party Group and Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of Zhejiang Province, introduced that focusing on the pure and beautiful rural culture and innovating the rural humanistic style through culture is an important focus of Zhejiang's continuous deepening of the "Ten Million Project". At present, the province has built a total of 19800 rural cultural halls.

To ensure the quality of life for farmers is harmonious and beautiful, it requires sufficient cultural space and rich cultural content.

Yu Huimin, Deputy Minister of the Propaganda Department of the Zhejiang Provincial Party Committee and Director of the Provincial Civilization Office, introduced that in recent years, Zhejiang has taken the "Civilized Quality Project" as the overall focus, and through ideological guidance, quality improvement, fashion infiltration, and cultural empowerment, has assisted the "Ten Million Project" and led rural revitalization with a civilized rural style.

Taking cultural empowerment as an example, Zhejiang has continuously carried out activities such as "pairing, cultivating culture, and nurturing civilization", and the "30000" project of cultural and artistic volunteer services, which closely combines the transmission of culture with the cultivation and nurturing of civilization. At the same time, it has organized cultural and cultural performance activities such as the provincial theater troupe benefiting the people performance season, ethnic art entering the auditorium, and provincial theater troupe public welfare theatrical performances going to the countryside to continuously meet the high-quality spiritual and cultural needs of farmers.

Over the past 20 years, the deepening of the "Ten Million Project" has continuously enhanced the awareness of the community of interests among Zhejiang farmers, which has also made good governance and successful rural governance an important manifestation of the revitalization of rural vitality.

"Through everyone's consultation, we have previously promoted the renovation of the wall. The village has helped us upgrade and transform the auxiliary houses into farmhouses, adding another source of income to our family." said Shi Xueqin, a villager from Xiaogucheng Village in Yuhang, Hangzhou. For a long time, Xiaogucheng Village has been exploring democratic consultation mechanisms - under the camphor tree at the village entrance, everyone's affairs are discussed by everyone. This not only makes the village an economically strong village, but also continuously aggregates the cohesion of the villagers.

From the establishment of China's first village affairs supervision committee to the innovative creation of the "Neighborhood Home" village level democratic deliberation and consultation platform, in Houchen Village, Wuyi County, Jinhua City, democratic supervision and having business and quantity have become traditions, and sunshine and transparency have brought harmony and beauty

Wang Zongming introduced that in the past 20 years, Zhejiang has continuously deepened the integration of rural "four governance", built a rural governance system led by party building that integrates autonomy, rule of law, moral governance, and intelligent governance, implemented the "Ten Thousand Villages Good Governance Project", and has created 8097 demonstration villages for good governance.

Promote the "joint efforts" between urban and rural areas

To achieve high-quality development of agriculture, rural areas, and farmers, it is necessary to fully consider complex historical, intergenerational, and class issues, as well as urban-rural and regional differences, and explore ways to eliminate institutional inequality and unequal opportunities. Another change brought about by the "Ten Million Project" is to provide equal development opportunities for farmers, and to comprehensively streamline the interactive and mutually promoting urban-rural integration relationship by constructing a new mechanism of scientific fusion for urban-rural integration.

"Digitization has been integrated into rural life. The big and small things in the village can be known on one platform, and problems can be quickly solved. There is no need to go to the city to get medical treatment and medicine, and intelligent health services can achieve 'chronic disease medication cannot leave the village'. Talking about the current days, Zhu Lihua, a villager from Meilin Village in Xiaoshan, Hangzhou, took out her phone and enthusiastically showed it to the reporter.".

The mobile platform it refers to is a large neighborhood center built in the cloud by the village based on the "Lijiayuan" digital grassroots governance system. Villagers can report problems online, register for volunteer services, and earn points. "Chronic disease medication cannot be dispensed out of the village" is achieved through the construction of district level "Healthy Brain+Smart Medical", which originally required going to a tertiary hospital to dispense medication. Now, it can be directly delivered to the village, while monitoring and warning the population with chronic diseases.

There are still many intelligent explorations to enhance the happiness of farmers in this village. The "Beautiful Life Center" in the village is distributed with cinemas, 24-hour rural digital libraries, unmanned gyms, unmanned supermarkets, and so on. There is also a digital runway in the village. After facial recognition, the intelligent device will automatically record and display in real-time how far you run and how many calories you burn.

When the "Ten Million Project" was launched, the Zhejiang government proposed to "effectively promote the extension of urban infrastructure to rural areas, the coverage of urban public services to rural areas, and the radiation of modern urban civilization to rural areas.". The appearance of Meilin Village is a reflection of the province's firm grasp of this principle and direction.

Zhang Chunhua, member of the Party Group and Deputy Director of the Development and Reform Commission of Zhejiang Province, introduced that in the past 20 years, Zhejiang has focused on promoting urban-rural spatial integration, industrial integration, and institutional integration, and promoting the comprehensive integration of rural revitalization and new urbanization.

If we are focusing on promoting the integration of urban and rural spaces, the province will promote the coordinated development of urban and rural strategies, including the development of urban agglomerations, new urbanization based on county towns, the cultivation and development of small cities and central towns, the "Millennium Old City Revitalization" project, and rural revitalization, as a whole. We have constructed a urban-rural spatial pattern with urban areas as the main form and coordinated development of large, medium, and small cities, towns, and villages.

The equalization of urban and rural public services is an important focus of promoting the integration of urban and rural systems in Zhejiang. In terms of healthcare, the province vigorously promotes the construction of county-level medical communities and medical consortia, with a county-level medical consultation rate of 89.5% and 95.7% of township health centers able to carry out outpatient surgeries. In terms of transportation services, Zhejiang has achieved 19000 established villages with access to buses, and the integration rate of urban and rural public transportation has increased by 19 percentage points, reaching 85%.

"The 'Ten Million Project' is not only a construction project for improving the living environment in rural areas, a project for promoting rural people's hearts and livelihoods, and a project for village governance and development, but also a hub project for urban-rural coordination and integration. Its role in promoting Zhejiang's development is comprehensive," said Huang Zuhui, Chief Expert of the China Academy of Rural Development at Zhejiang University.

The countryside in Zhejiang still has infinite imagination space in the future. Zhejiang Provincial Party Secretary Yi Lianhong publicly stated that Zhejiang will effectively promote the deepening and implementation of the "Ten Million Project", strive to become the vanguard of urban-rural integration development, stimulate new momentum for rural revitalization, shape a new rural style and temperament, explore new paths for common prosperity, pay more attention to improving and enhancing rural infrastructure and public service support, promote rural civilization and governance, and enable rural residents to enjoy new achievements in modernization construction.