Dunqian in Longji Town, Suqian City was one of the underdeveloped villages at the start of the 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-2020) in Jiangsu. In the past five years, great progress has been made in the development of the village. Getting out of poverty in 2018, the village began housing renovation as a pilot village in northern Jiangsu in the same year, and then increased its collective income to surpass one million yuan in 2020. This year, Dunqian community was recognized as a role model nationwide for promoting social civility in rural areas.
Adam Brillhart, an American architect and assistant professor in the Department of Architecture at XJTLU, together with three international students from Southeast University, has recently visited the village.
In the past, the village’s roads were full of potholes, the houses made of red bricks were built in the 1970s and 1980s, and most young people left to work in other places. When the province’s northern areas began house renovations in the countryside in 2018, Longji Town also initiated the pilot project in Dunqian. After seeking opinions of local farmers, more than 980 new houses were built and 200 old houses were refurbished. Such efforts have greatly enhanced the living environment for local people. Local government coordinated various departments such as electricity, water, and gas to control the building and renovation cost. The design team also constantly improved the planning, which ensured the building cost of 2,000 yuan per square meter. The construction started in July 2019 and the first group of residents chose their new houses on October 8, 2020.
Since September 2018, Suqian City has carried out 259 projects to improve rural housing conditions, which benefited more than 191,000 families. Walking past the neat houses, Adam realized that local people have a happy life and some villagers have decorated their yards, giving the rural environment a new look. He Min, Managing Director & Chief Architect of Hangzhou 9M Architectural Design, said she finds more and more people living in the vibrant community during each visit and new changes are also emerging.
Inspired by the management model of urban resident community, the village committee set up a property management company, hired several respected villagers as team leaders, and also employed a dozen people from low-income families. This has helped to make the village clean and also increase earnings of the vulnerable.
After the old houses were demolished, local people made use of the leftover bricks to build a hall with a floor area of 1,800 square meters. It has been used to showcase the old objects, farming tools and other things all associated with the village’s past.
Adam and Soniya were very interested in the displays, saying they vividly show the development of Chinese society.
With the refurbished houses, many young people are returning to work or start their own businesses in the village. An agreement was signed in July 2021 to build a trees and flowers farm of 130,000 square meters in the village, which will involve a total investment of 3 billion yuan. This investment is expected to bring back more young people to support the development of their hometown.
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