Rural vitalization efforts reap big success
Young residents from cities root themselves in agriculture to truly understand the countryside, deeply integrate with villagers
While people from all over the country usually come to China’s major cities to pursue their dreams, some urban youths have gone in a different direction.
More than 70 youngsters from cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen have settled in Tieniu village in Pujiang county of Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province, as part of a “co-creation” experiment for rural vitalization.
Located about 50 kilometers from Chengdu’s urban area, Tieniu village covers 9.59 square kilometers and is home to 1,073 households and 3,634 residents.
The villagers’ main sources of income used to be tangerines, kiwis and fish farming.
“Due to limited development opportunities in the village, educated youth would migrate to cities,” said Xu Bangmiao, Party secretary of the village.
The changes began in 2017, when rural vitalization was proposed as a key strategy at the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, and Shi Guoping, a US-registered architect, was invited as the village’s chief planner.
Shi refers to himself as a “researcher of rural life” who is conducting a “social experiment” to reconnect today’s urban youth with the countryside.
In contrast to many villages keen to develop cultural tourism as their pillar industry, Shi believes that agriculture is the foundation of rural areas. He says rural vitalization must be firmly based on agriculture.
“Only by rooting themselves in agriculture can new residents truly understand rural areas, and deeply integrate with villagers,” he said.
Tangerine capital
Tieniu is renowned for its tangerines, with 9,900 mu (660 hectares) of tangerine orchards, accounting for 78 percent of the total plantation area in the village. Therefore, Shi started his experiment with tangerines.
Although the Pujiang ugly tangerine has been recognized as a “national geographical indication protection product”, its cultivation methods and industry model remain traditional. In recent years, it has faced issues such as excessive use of pesticides, soil acidification and fierce competition from homogeneous products.
To chart a new path for the tangerine industry, Shi started by restoring ecological balance and soil health through ecological planting methods.
“Ecological planting is the trend and an essential pathway for the sustainable development of agriculture. Someone must step up and undertake this endeavor,” Shi said.
Shi and his team rented a tangerine orchard of 0.6 hectare and introduced an ecological agricultural production concept, replacing chemical fertilizers with organic ones and chemical control with green pest management methods.
After two years of trials, the tangerines produced from Shi’s orchard gained market recognition. Despite a 40 percent reduction in yield per mu compared to traditional methods, the organic tangerines were sold at prices exceeding 20 yuan ($2.8) per kilogram, about three times the price of regular ones.
“The green industry development concepts and models brought by the new villagers are exactly what we need most right now,” Xu said.
Common development
Recognizing the benefits of ecological planting, 14 households in the village joined Shi’s initiative last year, expanding the area of the ecological orchard to 2.7 hectares.
The first step for ecological planting is to improve the soil, which costs an average of 6,000 yuan per mu. “The villagers only need to spend 2,000 yuan per mu, and we will take care of the rest,” said Cheng Xiaoqiong, a researcher on Shi’s team.
The tangerines harvested from the ecological orchard are sold by an enterprise set up by the new villagers. “This year, the market price for regular tangerines is only 1 yuan per kilo, but we purchase the ecological ones from the villagers at 2 yuan,” she said.
To ensure the villagers’ shared prosperity, Shi’s team jointly established a village-enterprise consortium with the collective economic cooperative of Tieniu.
“For every kilo of ecological tangerines we sell, 0.6 yuan from the income will go into the account of the consortium, which will benefit all the villagers,” Cheng said.
More attempts have been made by Shi and his team to achieve integrated development of agriculture, industry and the service sector in the village.
They have developed a range of products from fresh fruits, such as tangerine jam, dried tangerine, tangerine soda, tangerine wine and canned tangerines.
A series of activities have been planned and organized in the village, including the low-carbon lifestyle festival, the rural life festival, and the tangerine picking festival, bringing in more tourists.
The new villagers have also developed orchard tours and study tour programs, further promoting the development of rural tourism in the village.
“The locally produced goods in the village are directly purchased by tourists. More villagers have started their own farmhouses and homestays, and their businesses are thriving,” Xu said.
He said the new villagers have not only brought in methods for industrial development and income generation, but also introduced new lifestyles and living concepts.
In addition to large-scale festive events, the new villagers have organized various forms of educational activities on weekends, such as parent-child lectures, English classes and paper-cutting training, bringing a pleasant change to the village.
“In the past, children in our village had to go to the city for these activities,” Xu said.
He said more than a dozen young people have returned home to start their own businesses after seeing the changes in the village.
Reasons to stay
Shi, who is in his 50s, was born and raised in a rural area in Central China’s Hunan province. With the support of his parents, he went on to study in a big city, and later pursued further studies in the United States.
“For the first 40 years of my life, I had just one ordinary goal, which was to study hard and see the world outside,” he said.
In 2013, while in Shanghai with his family, Shi was invited to plan for the Mingyue village in Pujiang by chance, which reconnected him with China’s rural areas.
It was in Mingyue village that Shi first met Xu, who was also a skilled mason. Together with his brother, Xu was leading a rural construction team to help with the transformation and upgrading of the village.
“At that time, I thought, when the conditions are mature, I would also invite Mr Shi to do the planning for Tieniu,” he said.
Four years later, with the implementation of the rural vitalization strategy, Xu’s wish came true.
Shi said it was only after returning to rural areas that he realized the importance of rural vitalization, and made up his mind to stay in the countryside and contribute to the vitalization of rural areas with his knowledge and efforts.
Shi said people in urban areas are increasingly pursuing a better quality of life as they become wealthier, and the demand for clean water, air, and soil in the countryside, as well as safe food, is growing steadily.
“On the other hand, the heavy work pressure and crowded spaces in cities can easily lead to self-isolation and trigger mental illnesses, while the open natural environment in rural areas makes it easier for people to open up their minds and relax,” he added.
Shi said he wants to explore and create a more harmonious, healthy and sustainable way of life for the next generation.
In his view, Mingyue is built upon the foundation of cultural creativity and cultural tourism, aiming to create an ideal lifestyle that combines leisure and travel. Tieniu is, however, much closer to the essence of rural life, where he hopes to create a future lifestyle based on ecological and cultural vitalization.
In September 2020, Shi moved his family to Tieniu. His wife, Zhao Jing, who holds a PhD in biology, later established a community education center in the village.
Sustainable future
Shi believes the key to rural vitalization lies in talent, and it is essential to create conditions for talented people to work and live in rural areas.
To generate more job opportunities, Shi and his team have incubated four enterprises and two social organizations, forming a comprehensive platform for systematic research and practical implementation of rural vitalization and sustainable development.
The village has renovated vacant houses into free office spaces and dormitories for the new villagers, and provides free water, electricity and natural gas.
To date, the village has become home to over 70 urban youths from more than 20 cities across China, with another 300 living in the village occasionally.
“Most of the new residents have a good educational background, and come from diverse professional backgrounds, including finance and investment, architectural design, urban planning, culture and art, ecological agriculture, and innovative education,” Shi said.
He said many people believe that moving to the countryside is an escape from reality or an act of “lying flat”. However, it is quite the opposite in Tieniu.
“The new villagers view rural vitalization as a career where they can leverage their expertise and dedicate themselves to its continuous development,” he said, adding they are more proactive, self-aware and responsible for their own quality of life.
Cheng, the researcher who is concerned about the impact of rural residents on climate change, came in the hope of practicing and advocating a low-carbon lifestyle.
She said life in Tieniu is what she had dreamed of, where she eats what she grows and works with likeminded young people from around the country.
“The experience in the village has allowed me to discover more possibilities for myself and learn to become a complete person,” she said.
Over the past three years, Shi has accomplished the first phase of his rural experiment with an investment of 5 million yuan, achieving a balance between profit and cost.
“This year is crucial as we are entering a stage of massive development,” he said.
The ecological orchard in the village will expand to 20 hectares this year, with over 100 households joining in, said Xu, who announced the news at the opening ceremony of the Pujiang Tangerine Picking Festival in January.
Xu said the village has started construction of a talent park project designed by Shi, aiming to provide larger and more comfortable space for new villagers to work and live in.
To attract more support, Shi’s team launched a One Yuan Adoption program. Anyone who joins the program can adopt a tree in the ecological orchard for 365 yuan per year, and at the end of the year, they will receive four kilos of tangerines from the tree, along with a gift box containing fruit wine, chocolate and a woven item.
Nearly 3,000 people have joined the program, Shi said.
Shi said their ultimate goal is to realize ecological planting at all the tangerine groves in Tieniu.
“The goal is quite challenging, and the process depends on how many people participate,” he said.
Ecological planting is the trend and an essential pathway for the sustainable development of agriculture. Someone must step up and undertake this endeavor.”
Shi Guoping, chief planner of Tieniu village in Chengdu, Sichuan province