The cornices of lychee trees cast reflections on the yellow walls, and the green mountains and fertile farmlands take on a fresh new look. Stepping into Zengcheng, the most beautiful tourist highways wind their way forward, flanked by bright, tidy and completely renewed rural houses; the Guangzhou-Shantou High-Speed Railway runs through the district, with scattered rural houses along the line boasting distinctive styles; vibrant demonstration main streets such as Zhengguo Old Street and Paitan Market Town brim with life, while villages including Shangjiubei Village, Danqiu Village and Gualing Village have become popular check-in spots for citizens and tourists thanks to their unique styles. These heartening changes are a vivid testament to the steady advancement of the three-year action for upgrading the quality and style of rural houses in our district.
In recent years, anchored in the model of “regulating new constructions, renovating existing properties, building through diversified participation, and empowering development with green initiatives”, our district has taken the cultivation of model towns and villages under the “100 Counties, 1,000 Towns and 10,000 Villages High-quality Development Project” and the construction of the South Kunlun Mountain – Luofu Mountain Leading Area as the key starting points. We have focused our efforts precisely on the four major areas alongside railways, expressways, national and provincial trunk roads, and county and rural highways. By strengthening publicity and guidance, refining practical operation guidelines and mobilizing social forces to participate, we have built a working pattern for rural house style renovation featuring “government guidance, social participation and joint construction by villagers”. After three years of intensive efforts, remarkable achievements have been made in the renovation of rural house styles across the district: the style upgrading of about 12,000 existing rural houses has been completed cumulatively, a batch of style demonstration models have been created, the rural living environment has been greatly improved, laying a solid foundation for building livable, business-friendly and harmonious beautiful villages.
Targeted Policies: Dual Efforts in Renovating Existing Properties and Regulating New Constructions
Adhering to a problem-oriented approach, our district takes Party building as the guide to solve the difficulties in rural house style renovation. Aiming at the pain points such as the uneven styles of existing rural houses and the lack of norms for newly-built rural houses, we have precisely adopted a combined strategy of “renovation + regulation”.
In the renovation of existing rural houses, focusing on the core task of renovating exposed houses, Party organizations at all levels have taken the initiative to shoulder responsibilities and act proactively, taking the lead in setting up special work teams. In accordance with the classified policy principle of “demolishing, shielding, decorating and greening”, we have focused on the four major alongside areas and key zones, and fully promoted the upgrading of rural house quality and style in key areas including the most beautiful tourist highway in the South Kunlun Mountain – Luofu Mountain Leading Area, the surrounding areas of the Guangzhou-Shantou High-Speed Railway, as well as the Gaotan Area in Paitan and the Ten-Thousand-Mu Area in Zhucun. Since the implementation of the “100 Counties, 1,000 Towns and 10,000 Villages High-quality Development Project”, our district has completed the style renovation of about 12,000 existing rural houses cumulatively. A number of beautiful demonstration main streets and contiguous building facade demonstration models such as Zhengguo Old Street, Paitan Market Town and Xiaolou Market Town have been built one after another. The demonstration effect of rural house styles along the most beautiful tourist highways and the Guangzhou-Shantou Railway has emerged. The quality and style of the four major alongside areas in the South Kunlun Mountain – Luofu Mountain Leading Area have been continuously improved, making it a bright window showing the rural style of Zengcheng.
To address the problem of messy roof frames of rural houses affecting the overall style, our district has innovatively launched a renovation plan of “grille landscaping”. Professional technicians are organized to provide customized designs, guiding villagers to install grilles made of anti-corrosion wood, aluminum alloy and other materials on roof frames. This not only retains the practical functions of roof frames for drying and storage, but also achieves a landscaping effect through unified styles and standardized designs. Up to now, 306 houses along the most beautiful tourist highways have completed the grille renovation of roof frames. The renovated rural house roofs are neat and orderly, complementing the Lingnan-style facades and becoming the finishing touch for style upgrading.
In the regulation of new rural house constructions, our district has strengthened institutional guarantees and technical support. We have issued the Guidelines for the Administration of Rural Housing Construction in Zengcheng District (Trial) and the Operation Manual for the Whole-process Approval and Administration of Non-apartment Rural Housing for Villagers in Zengcheng District, establishing a full-process management mechanism covering the confirmation of “one household, one homestead”, planning and site selection, land use approval, construction standards, housing construction approval, construction supervision, as well as the withdrawal and utilization of homesteads. By merging approval procedures, simplifying processes and compressing handling time, we have reduced the administrative costs for farmers and strengthened the supervision of rural house quality, safety and style. Meanwhile, we have formulated the Guidelines for the Restoration and Upgrading of Rural Style in Zengcheng District and the Research on Rural House Style Supervision and General Design Atlas in Zengcheng District based on local conditions, clarifying hierarchical supervision priorities and positive and negative style lists. We have provided 10 standard house types, 48 rural house design schemes and supporting construction drawings, and compiled the One Manual for Each Town (Sub-district) for the reference of town and sub-district staff and villagers in house construction.
On this basis, our district has selected four administrative villages including Baihu Village in Zengjiang Sub-district, Mishi Village in Paitan Town, Tangkou Village in Shitan Town and Ciling Village in Zhongxin Town as pilot villages for the reform of rural housing construction management, exploring new paths for rural house construction and style supervision. The pilot villages have strictly implemented the “approval with design drawings” policy: newly-built rural houses adopt Lingnan-style designs from the general atlas, with unified planning for facades, roofs and courtyard layouts, and simultaneous construction of supporting infrastructure such as sewage pipelines and leisure trails. At present, the construction of contiguous rural houses in pilot villages such as Baihu Village is advancing in an orderly manner. Upon completion, these villages will form a new type of rural community with unified styles, complete facilities, livable environment and business opportunities, providing a replicable and promotable model for newly-built rural houses across the district.
Diversified Joint Construction: Pooling the Efforts of Government, Enterprises and Villagers to Build Beautiful Countryside
Villagers are the main body and social forces are the strong support for the upgrading of rural house styles. Our district has innovatively built a pattern of diversified joint construction, turning villagers from “onlookers” into “participants” and enterprises from “outsiders” into “partners”.
To stimulate villagers’ enthusiasm for participation, our district has extensively publicized relevant policies through various channels including new media short videos, village radio broadcasts and the handbook Q&A on the Renovation and Upgrading of Rural Living Environment, mobilizing villagers’ initiative to participate and encouraging them to independently renovate house facades. In the Ten-Thousand-Mu Area of Zhucun, through the model of “villagers’ independent application + government technical guidance”, 153 households have been guided to complete house facade renovation, and 220 households have been mobilized to demolish illegal iron sheds. Through door-to-door publicity for the renovation along the Guangzhou-Shantou Railway, 45 villagers and 58 enterprises have been effectively guided to independently renovate the facades of their houses and factories, with the style renovation of 105 buildings completed in total. On the demonstration section of the most beautiful tourist highway, the joint construction model of “enterprises undertaking construction, villagers providing materials” has been piloted with fruitful results: 61 households have been motivated to purchase materials at their own expense with enterprises providing construction support, creating a positive atmosphere of “decorating our own houses and building our beautiful homeland together”.
Enterprise support has injected strong impetus into the style upgrading drive. Zengcheng District has issued a series of policies on paired assistance by construction enterprises, established assistance directories, project databases and incentive mechanisms, guiding enterprises to give back to the “100 Counties, 1,000 Towns and 10,000 Villages High-quality Development Project” under the principle of “overall meager profit” and participate in rural house style upgrading. A total of 12 million yuan of enterprise assistance has been mobilized for the style upgrading of rural houses along the demonstration section of the most beautiful tourist highway, and 26 million yuan has been invested in the style renovation along the Guangzhou-Shantou Railway. We have concentrated resources to advance the construction of the South Kunlun Mountain – Luofu Mountain Leading Area, mobilizing enterprises to invest 178 million yuan in supporting 84 projects, and carrying out style upgrading in key areas including 13 major traffic arteries in the leading area, the Gaotan Area, Zhengguo Old Street and Paitan Market Town.
Green Empowerment: Exploring a Sustainable New Path for Rural House Construction
In the process of style upgrading, our district has always practiced the concept of green environmental protection and actively promoted green rural house construction technologies. We have formulated the Guidelines for the Construction and Administration of “PV + Building” Projects in Zengcheng District, piloting the planning and construction of a “PV + Building” demonstration project in Jiasongling Village of Paitan Town to create a brand of “zero-carbon countryside”. In Xiancun Town, prefabricated light steel structures have been adopted in the construction of Shenchong Health Station, exploring a new construction model. In Shangjiubei Village of Paitan Town, local materials have been used for the minor renovation of rural houses. On the demonstration section of the most beautiful tourist highway, we have promoted locally-developed new waterproof coatings and improved construction technologies, which not only reduce renovation costs but also highlight ecological characteristics.
Today, the rural areas of Zengcheng boast scattered rural houses with neat layouts, clean and beautiful village appearances, and a civilized and harmonious rural customs. In the next step, our district will continue to deepen the supervision and upgrading of rural house styles, gradually extend the work to non-four-alongside areas, increase the promotion of general design atlases, consolidate the responsibility of whole-process supervision, and improve the paired assistance mechanism. We will strive to bring a new look to more villages, unfolding a magnificent picture of livable, business-friendly and harmonious beautiful countryside across the land of Zengcheng.
