Five Major Development Paths of New Urbanization and New Rural Community Development Models
At present, China's urbanization is in a stage of accelerated development, and urban-rural development faces a series of problems such as large disparities, industrial homogenization, lack of vitality in small towns, and big cities suffering from urban diseases. How to break away from the urban-rural dual structure development approach, coordinate the development relationship between urban and rural areas, and pursue a distinctive development path for large and small towns. We can draw on five major urbanization development paths: the industrial complex model, the tourism town cluster model, the industry-city integration model, the old city renovation and renewal model, and the new rural community development model.
I. Industrial Complex Model
Small towns formed with ecological industry at their core represent one of the core development paths of new urbanization. By developing and creating high-efficiency ecological industrial complexes, it is possible to support one township, drive a whole area of villages, and enrich a group of farmers. This mainly includes creative design complexes, modern agricultural service complexes, ecological manufacturing complexes led by large enterprises, and commercial leisure and entertainment complexes.
⟦NL> By combining agriculture, rural areas, and farmers with new urbanization construction, and in light of local characteristics, with vast rural areas as the foundation, broad farmer participation as the support, townships and villages as the main battlefield, and agriculture, rural areas, and farmers as the main body, new small and medium-sized towns serve as the carrier to create high-efficiency ecological industrial complexes that are smart, ecological, technological, and cultural with rural characteristics.
In this process, the government and enterprises need to play different roles. The government coordinates overall planning, improves infrastructure construction and comprehensive service functions, promotes land circulation, centrally resettles residents, coordinates industrial development forms, and creates an overall atmosphere for industrial complex development. Enterprises integrate technology research and development, production and manufacturing, achievement display, and creative design into the complex, and provide commercial and entertainment services for residents and industrial workers, turning the industrial complex into an intensive, smart, green, and low-carbon development model.
In the specific development process, attention should be paid to establishing distinctive leading industries and cultivating core industrial competitiveness.
Based on local resource endowments and unique development patterns, reasonably plan the industrial structure and industrial layout, fully tap industries with comparative advantages, focus on cultivating pillar industries, give play to comparative advantages, clarify development direction, determine characteristic industries, and strive to form a characteristic small town industrial development pattern of “one town, one industry; multiple industries developing together; distinct characteristics; and industry prospering the town.”
In addition, attention should be paid to shaping architectural style characteristics and inheriting historical context. History and culture are the soul of characteristic small towns. On the basis of focusing on the authenticity, readability, and sustainability of history, inherit cultural context, highlight individuality, fully protect, tap, and promote the characteristics of small towns in nature, economy, history, and culture, reflect the historical evolution and cultural inheritance of China's small towns, and enhance the visibility and cultural soft power of small towns. Cultivating leading industries with competitive advantages according to local conditions is an important condition for maintaining urban vitality and promoting urban development.
II. Tourism Town Cluster Model
Grasping the development wave of the leisure industry, developing tourism products that meet market demand, changing rural landscapes, advancing rural leisure, cultural tourism, elderly-friendly livable communities, tourism real estate, and the development of famous, special, and green tourism commodities, and actively developing new business forms such as self-driving tours to provide tourists with high-quality, comfortable, and all-round tourism services. This is another path for integrating with new urbanization construction and achieving coordinated urban-rural development.
In response to local characteristics and relying on natural resources, small towns with distinctive themes such as coastal, cultural, hot spring, and ski tourism can be formed. Four major tourism town cluster models can be roughly developed, namely: cultural theme towns, tourism town complexes, tourism industry towns, and characteristic style tourism resorts.
Cultural theme towns are based on cultural resources and can create famous cultural cities and towns, leisure ancient cities and towns, ethnic style towns, art towns, craft towns, commercial shopping towns, film towns, and more.
Tourism town complexes rely on scenic areas and can create various reception-oriented towns. Leveraging the broad tourism extension of scenic areas, they can also create convention and exhibition towns, sports towns, leisure agriculture towns, and more.
Tourism industry towns rely on characteristic resources, characteristic industries, and characteristic wholesale markets, and through the clustered development of the tourism industry, achieve close integration of characteristic tourism and characteristic industries, exploring a brand-new path for urbanization.
Characteristic style tourism resorts involve building new rural resorts and creating rural tourism towns that integrate leisure agriculture, leisure vacations, sightseeing tourism, wellness living, and centralized resettlement of farmers.