Zhijiang’s Harmonious Urban-Rural Development Project
ANFUSI Town in Yichang City, northwest of Zhijiang City, is a national demonstration town of urbanization and rural development in Hubei and site of a large industrial park. The reporter went there to see the work in progress on building a 4,000-square-meter smart greenhouse with a bucolic landscape and an aquatic product factory equipped to produce surimi.
In 2000, there were just a few small local businesses in Anfusi. Today, Anfusi Industrial Park is among the 131 provincial-level development zones in Hubei. In 2013, its industrial park became one of the province’s 21 industrial development experimental towns featuring industrialization, informatization, urbanization and agricultural modernization.
Strengthening food industry, chemical industry, textile industry, and machine manufacture was the aim of Zhijiang City throughout construction of its industrial park. In 2014, the output value of these four major industrial businesses exceeded RMB 60 billion, and it continues to grow. The park’s Zhijiang Liquor Industry and Sanning Company are among China’s top 500 private enterprises.
During construction of its modern agriculture district, Zhijiang City promoted development of 360,000 mu (15 mu = 1 hectare) for the production of fruits, 240,000 mu for the cultivation of vegetables, 130,000 mu for aquatic products, and 35,000 mu for floriculture and nursery industry. The city has built five demonstration livestock farms and two aqua-culture demonstration sites and has rebuilt and industrialized an aquarium covering 11,000 mu. Anfusi Industrial Park has been certified as a demonstration industrial park in Hubei Province, and Zhijiang City has been awarded the title of an advanced city for four successive years.
During the construction of the new town, Zhijiang City established a “ one principal, two sub-central, and four centers” urban-rural planning system. It comprises one principal downtown area, two sub-central downtown areas, five central towns, 20 small towns and 80 central and traditional villages.
Zhijiang has named the new villages and communities it has constructed the New Pinghu, and New Anfu communities, and Qingshuixi and Longquantang residential quarters, all of which feature full social insurance coverage and better schools.
The “Four Zones” (industrial park, modern agricultural demonstration area, urban communities, and rural communities) Urban-Rural Development Plan is a grand project that strengthens Zhijiang City’s competitiveness in its quest to become one of China’s top county-level cities.
