Shushan Village in Suzhou City (CFP Photo)
Jiangsu promoted the rural planner program on Oct 15 by unveiling 55 new service stations across the province, which brought the total number of nearly 1,000 planners active on the frontline of rural revitalization.
Jiangsu launched the program in last September to better preserve and develop the unique cultural legacy in the countryside and address complex development challenges through more integrated approaches and well-informed decisions.
Longshang Village in Nanjing’s Jiangning District is a success story of this program. The village, with about 1,195 households in eight settlements, is now known for its beautiful environment and rustic charm, attracting many tourists to enjoy the natural world in the golden autumn.
Ouyang Anjun, 42, said he closed his 8-year-old company in another city last July and returned to the hometown after learning about a favorable policy to support farmers’ agritourism entrepreneurship. The breakfast and bed service he has operated earned him an income of 18,000 yuan a day during the National Day holiday, and the profit is no less than his working in other places.
Longshang Village now has eight family offering B&B services, which become an important source of income for the villagers.
The village’s rise to a recreation and tourism destination in the suburbs of Nanjing is not possible without the contribution of Zhang Chuan, director of the urban-rural office of the Institute of Urban Planning and Design, Nanjing University. Zhang made field visits to the village and helped focus on making full use of the village’s mountain and water resources as a key appeal.
After more than 10 months of discussions, Longshang Village finalized its planning, the first village to have a dedicated development blueprint in the district, and decided to integrate agriculture, farming experience and holiday resort as the priority.
"The planners we sent have been serving Longshang Village on site for three and a half years, and the planning has been fine-tuned and optimized in light of the reality," said Zhang. In response to villagers’ need for public space, the village has also established a library.
The province’s rural planner program has also benefited the development of Taocun Village in Shangxing Town, Liyang City. Guo Mang, a young planner, has also worked as the village’s Party chief since March this year.
Guo said a planner’s work was usually over after delivering a planning report in the past but now planner also needs to help ensure the implementation on the ground in order to better serve the villagers.
In the province, rural planners are playing more important roles in turning a vision into reality. Shushan Village in Suzhou City is home to China’s first rural entrepreneurship and innovation center built with the support of a professional planning team. Once a sleepy mountain village by Taihu Lake, Shushan is now well-known online. Similar progress was also made in Dashahe Town in Fengxian County, Xuzhou City after a group of young planners held a planning competition with villagers as judges.
At present, Jiangsu has built more than 80 planner workstations in the countryside, said Kong Haiyan, head of the leading Party members' group at the province’s Department of Natural Resources. This effort has also been recognized as one of six pilot projects of the national planner scheme by the Ministry of Natural Resources.
Professor Duan Jin of Southeast University, also an academician with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said planners need to explore a village’s characteristics to continue the folk culture and fully preserve the local architectural features.
