Please preserve the rustic beauty of the countryside
Edited by: Guangzhou Deli Yacht Terminal Engineering Co., Ltd
Edited on: November 2, 2017
Source: Internet
Why is it difficult to find a venue that integrates nature and culture in rural China compared to foreign estate diplomacy? Where has the countryside, where poetic dwelling once appeared in large numbers in landscape paintings, gone? In 2014, after presiding over the completion of the overall planning of the Yanqi Lake Ecological Demonstration Zone and APEC venue in Beijing, Hong Wei began to think more about such issues.
Afterwards, Hong Wei began to carefully study the development history of ancient Chinese countryside and well-known estates abroad, and founded the International Planning and Design Research Institute of Terroir, gradually shifting the focus of his work from cities to rural areas. As a result, his local research institute began to integrate into the trend of rural construction, such as beautiful villages and characteristic towns, through case studies.
In 2017, the No. 1 central document put forward the concept of pastoral complex to support conditional rural construction, which takes farmers' cooperatives as the main carrier, allows farmers to fully participate in and benefit from, integrates circular agriculture, creative agriculture, and farming experience, and carries out pilot demonstration through comprehensive agricultural development, rural comprehensive reform, transfer payment and other channels.
As soon as the concept was introduced, it attracted much attention from all parties, and some analyses even regarded the integrated rural areas as a paradigm for the future development of rural China. Hong Wei told a reporter from Minsheng Weekly that the concept of rural integrated complexes originated from grassroots practice and there is currently no clear definition. However, it aggregates elements that were previously lacking in many rural construction concepts, which is in line with the direction of rural revitalization. As for whether rural complexes can become the ultimate solution for rural construction, it still depends on the specific practices that follow.
Multiple explorations in rural construction
Before the concept of pastoral complexes was proposed, Chinese rural areas had undergone three large-scale constructions in the past 10 years, which Hong Wei summarized as three stages: new rural transformation, beautiful countryside, and characteristic towns.
The construction of new rural areas launched in the early 21st century was the first stage, starting with developed provinces and cities in the Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta regions. Cities drove rural areas, industry supplied agriculture, and advocated for a more localized and standardized living environment in rural areas. However, due to reasons such as lagging planning, insufficient construction funds, and inadequate role of farmers as the main body, the transformation of new rural areas has led to a serious problem of dirty, disorderly, and poor conditions in every village.
After 2013, with; Beautiful Countryside; The slogan has sparked a large-scale wave of beautiful rural construction across the country. At the same time, concepts such as rural tourism and comprehensive tourism have been incorporated, thus opening up a new round of rural image transformation projects.
Hong Wei observed that many local governments, in order to attract tourists to rural areas during this construction wave, blindly demolished and rebuilt ancient villages without considering the actual situation. A large number of red brick residential houses and castles from a historic ancient village in the north have been uniformly transformed into the Jiangnan Water Village style with blue bricks and gray tiles; The ancient city gate, which had gone through the vicissitudes of time, has also been forcibly transformed into a brand new and dull blue color.
In May of this year, the Department of Housing and Urban Rural Development of Fujian Province released a negative case report on the construction of beautiful rural areas, pointing directly at the process of rural revitalization; Build image projects such as grand pavilions, grand memorial archway, grand parks, and grand squares” The prominent problems include blindly copying urban models, deviating from rural realities, and even damaging rural landscapes and natural ecology.
“ The large-scale construction brings about competition homogenization, and many early rural tourism sites are facing enormous market competition pressure and development bottlenecks. The construction of beautiful rural areas is the second stage, but there are problems such as weak sustainability, lack of industrial drive, excessive design, and single mode. The new round of rural construction requires more scientific and feasible concepts. ” Hong Wei said.
In 2016, characteristic towns were promoted by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Rural Development and other departments, and were elevated from local practices to national concepts. “ Characteristic towns are industry oriented, bringing great leaps to the diversified development of industries in townships. The model has strong replicability, but in the implementation process, there have also been problems such as lack of respect for rural areas, serious guidance towards urban park models, poor construction of rural culture, and significant environmental damage. ” Hong Wei said.
Based on a comprehensive analysis of rural construction practices at various stages, Hong Wei stated:; At present, all construction models focus on studying rural areas from an urban perspective, neglecting the advantages and characteristics of rural areas themselves. Moreover, most of them are proposed by different government departments and implemented under the leadership of local governments, which fails to give full play to the main role of farmers and the role of market resource allocation. ”
“ The rural complex is a new concept proposed after the characteristic town. In summary, the transformation of new rural areas can be called 2.0, beautiful rural areas can be called 3.0, characteristic towns can be called 3.5, and rural complexes can be called 3. X; In Hong Wei's view, the rural integrated complex has incorporated more necessary elements of rural development compared to the past, but its concept is not yet clear, and whether it can become the ultimate solution for rural development remains to be tested.
New farmers are the main body of rural areas
“ What we really need to take is a path; Farmers, rural areas, agriculture; The path of coordinated development for rural modernization. ” Hong Wei believes that what kind of entities are needed to implement agriculture, and how to attract these entities to enter and stay in rural areas, are the first issues that must be clarified.
In the study of the development models of ancient Chinese rural areas and foreign manor economies, Hong Wei gained great inspiration. “ Throughout the long history of China, the gentry and gentry have always been the leading force in rural social construction, cultural education, and public affairs. The famous villages and towns preserved today are all created by them. The ancient village of Nanxijiang in Wenzhou, which combines farming and reading, and passes down poetry and etiquette, is a living specimen of the cultural form of Chinese farming and reading society. ”
The common characteristics of well-known rural areas abroad are beautiful natural ecological environment, agricultural landscape, and leisure industry as the foundation for developing characteristic agricultural industry clusters. At the same time, attention is paid to the preservation and continuation of historical and cultural heritage, and the integration of primary, secondary, and tertiary industries is implemented.
He gave an example that Provence in France has; French Farm” The nickname is a model of good interaction between industries; Napa is a famous wine producing region in the United States, with multiple themed estates focused on the wine industry. The local area has formed a complete industry chain around grape cultivation and brewing, including manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, real estate, tourism, and more.
Inspired by this, Hong Wei put forward his new proposal for rural development and named it Creative Countryside (Countryside 4.0). “ We hope that future rural complexes can be closely integrated with Rural 4.0. ” In his opinion, the future development of rural areas should cover; New farmers, new rural areas, new agriculture; Among the three major aspects, the most crucial one is that new farmers should play a leading role.
Hong Wei said that the new farmers are professional farmers, who are knowledge-based agricultural talents in the new era of agriculture. They have technology, knowledge, and capital, and are the leaders of agricultural and rural development. “ New farmers are a profession, no longer an identity, but a free choice under the market economy contract, no different from any other profession. ”
The new countryside, also known as leisure oriented countryside, is different from the traditional beautiful countryside in that it is no longer a uniform house building, but a three-dimensional spatial structure consisting of manor clusters, scenic areas, and charming villages and towns. Through carriers such as manors and farms, it carries agriculture and service industries according to local conditions and places, providing residents with functions such as leisure, entertainment, and vacation.
Hong Wei said: '; In foreign countries, you will see no difference between urban and rural areas, with farms, vegetable markets, residential areas, companies, etc. all grouped together without specific divisions. Our division is very clear, which is also an urgent problem that needs to be solved. How to integrate urban land and rural land is a fundamental issue for achieving sustainable agricultural development. ”
He introduced that new agriculture, also known as tertiary agriculture, aims to achieve the integration of primary, secondary, and tertiary industries, including both attached and extended types. Attachment type refers to the combination of high-end tertiary industries and rural areas, including leisure farms, vacation estates, and forest schools; Extension type refers to the transformation of primary industries that were originally in rural areas into tertiary industries, including tourist farms, creative farms, and citizen farms.
How to create a rural complex
Cherry Valley in Erqi District, Zhengzhou, has become a well-known agricultural tourism destination due to its ten thousand acres of cherry trees, crisscrossing hills and valleys, and pleasant scenery. In recent years, with the introduction of concepts such as beautiful countryside and characteristic towns, the local government hopes to upgrade Cherry Valley into a rural town.
Hong Wei told reporters that after receiving the task of rural planning and design for Cherry Valley, they hope to put their ideas on rural construction into practice and plan the future Cherry Valley as China's first creative rural community. “ This is both a creative countryside and a rural complex. ”
“ At present, there are five major problems in rural China: lack of infrastructure, poor living quality, weak environmental management, single industrial development, and low level of technology. It is necessary to adjust the population structure from the perspective of the target, introduce market economy operation mode on the premise of unchanged land nature, and achieve a benign transformation of rural areas. ” Hong Wei said.
He said that in order to truly activate rural vitality, five modernization measures must be implemented, namely the construction of a new rural cultural system that professionalizes agricultural production, relaxes lifestyle, ecologizes infrastructure, professionalizes service management, and promotes a luxurious living environment.
Hong Wei told reporters that in the future, new farmers who are knowledgeable and localized in Cherry Valley will be the main body, building a cherry full industry chain that includes upstream and downstream industries and related industries, covering production, supporting facilities, and leisure and entertainment. Agricultural production includes two categories: township, city, town, and modern agriculture. Farmers can invest in land and other assets for dividends, and after training, they can also be employed by different enterprises to earn three times their previous income. More importantly, through the aggregation of talent, capital, and industry to rural areas, it drives the formation of a rural leisure lifestyle that values nature.
In the planning, they utilize some technological achievements and intelligent management methods suitable for rural areas to achieve the ecological transformation of infrastructure to the greatest extent possible. For example, they will introduce the concept of sponge city into the design of sponge villages, absorbing, surviving, infiltrating, and purifying rainwater nearby. The overall design concept is slow discharge and slow release, and decentralized control at the source. They will also introduce decentralized micro pollution discharge, decentralized micro energy, decentralized micro services, independent slow-moving micro transportation, and smart rural management systems.
For the existing residential buildings in Cherry Valley, Hong Wei said that they will follow the principle of '; Maximum protection, minimum intervention; Principle: Extract characteristic and advantageous elements from local natural culture, and preserve the simple beauty of rural areas as much as possible.
