The total income of Zhuhai’s rural collective economy rose from 703 million yuan in 2022 to 914 million yuan in 2024, with an average annual growth rate of over 14%. The proportion of administrative villages with annual income exceeding 2 million yuan has surpassed 87%.
As the year draws to a close, it is a moment to make a final sprint for annual goals and take stock of fruitful achievements.
Since the implementation of the “100 Counties, 1,000 Towns & 10,000 Villages Project”, Zhuhai has tailored its development strategies to local conditions by focusing on the western area, highlighting the characteristics of islands, and anchoring the efforts on towns and villages. It has successfully accomplished the phased goal of “initial results achieved in three years”, and strived to build a new benchmark for the Project in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA).
From boosting county-level economy led by new-quality productive forces to growing the total rural collective economic income to 914 million yuan; from pioneering the entrusted operation center model for idle rural houses in Guangdong Province to building China’s first rural entrepreneurship service center for young people from Hong Kong and Macao; from innovating the new multi-household joint construction model to meet farmers’ housing needs to exploring the eco-friendly “fish-grass symbiosis” aquaculture model… Zhuhai has integrated the special economic zone spirit of “daring to explore, daring to be the first, and working diligently with quiet perseverance” into the fabric of urban and rural development. It has steadily advanced the integrated reforms of the Project and forged a series of distinctive Zhuhai experience. A grand blueprint for coordinated development, depicted with the brushstrokes of industrial upgrading, urban-rural integration, marine empowerment and governance innovation, is slowly unfolding.
Hard work pays off, and solid action is paramount. Looking back on the 14th Five-Year Plan period, the per capita disposable income of rural residents in Zhuhai has increased from 35,800 yuan to 40,100 yuan, and the income ratio of urban to rural residents has narrowed from 1.83 to 1.61. Zhuhai has taken solid strides and shown a brand-new outlook in advancing the integrated urban-rural development.
Industrial Foundation: Boosting County-level Economy with a Focus on the Real Economy
Industry is the backbone of county-level development. Zhuhai is boosting its county-level economy under the guidance of new-quality productive forces.
In the modern workshops of Sanzao Town, Jinwan District, the automated production lines of Zhuhai Zhongkai Zhichuang Technology Co., Ltd. are running at full capacity, churning out 80,000 toner cartridge cases per day, with products exported to Brazil, Argentina, India and other countries.
This enterprise, which has grown into a “champion in its niche sector” in just a decade, is a vivid epitome of Zhuhai’s efforts to strengthen county-level industries. In recent years, Zhuhai has rolled out a series of policies including the 21 measures for the private economy and 16 measures for private investment to continuously optimize the business environment. It has built high-standard platforms such as Xiangzhou Sanxi Science and Technology Innovation City, Jinwan Pingsha New Industrial Space and Doumen Fushan Industrial Park, with the effect of industrial agglomeration becoming increasingly prominent.
At present, 45 enterprises in Zhuhai have been listed in the Top 500 Guangdong Manufacturing Enterprises 2025. Xiangzhou District and Jinwan District have been ranked among the Top 100 Industrial Districts in China, and Doumen District has been awarded the title of Top 100 Districts for Green Development in China.
In addition, Zhuhai has fully leveraged its unique advantage of being adjacent to Hong Kong and Macao to continuously expand its economic depth. The construction of the new economic and trade corridor via the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge has been accelerated, and innovative policies such as “Macao vehicles traveling northbound to Guangdong”, “Hong Kong vehicles traveling northbound to Guangdong” and “Fly via Zhuhai & Hong Kong” have been successively implemented. In the first half of 2025, the total import and export value through the bridge port exceeded 140 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 34.6%.
Rural Transformation: Rural Collective Economy Stimulates Endogenous Driving Forces
Strengthening the new rural collective economy is a key measure to advance the all-round revitalization of rural areas. By deeply implementing the Project, many villages in Zhuhai have achieved a remarkable transformation from being “underdeveloped” to “advanced”.
Xiaotuo Village in Baijiao Town, Doumen District, recorded a collective income of only 489,900 yuan in 2021, ranking last among all administrative villages in Zhuhai. With the advancement of the Project, the village has taken a series of measures including open bidding for fish ponds, developing characteristic aquaculture (giant freshwater prawn, four major Chinese carps and Baijiao sea bass), introducing canna edulis planting and red research tourism. Its collective income soared to 2.28 million yuan in 2024 and is expected to exceed 3 million yuan this year. The village has also won many honors such as a Model Village of the Provincial Project and a Provincial Rural Revitalization Demonstration Village, ranking eighth in the effectiveness assessment of the Project among 122 administrative villages in the city.
The development of Xiaotuo Village is not an isolated case. The model of “whole village operation” has been actively explored in Zhongxin Village of Sanzao Town in Jinwan District and Xiazhou Village of Doumen Town in Doumen District, enabling more efficient resource integration and market connection. At present, the city has built 30 pilot villages and 10 model villages for rural operation. Relying on six provincial-level modern agricultural industrial parks, the characteristic brands such as Baijiao sea bass, Jinwan yellow croaker and Doumen lychee have become increasingly renowned.
Data bears witness to the remarkable achievements. The city’s total rural collective economic income increased from 703 million yuan in 2022 to 914 million yuan in 2024, with an average annual growth rate of over 14%. More than 87% of administrative villages have an annual income exceeding 2 million yuan, reflecting a significant boost in the endogenous driving forces for rural development.
Striving for Prosperity with Marine Advantages: Blue Economy Unleashes the Charm of Islands
Endowed with a 224.5-kilometer winding coastline and scattered islands, Zhuhai has long been known as the “City of Hundred Islands”. In advancing the Project, the marine sector has become a major battlefield for showcasing distinctive features and fostering new growth poles. The city’s gross marine product has exceeded 100 billion yuan.
In Guihai Village of Guishan Island, Jiuzhou Blue Coast Homestay has ingeniously integrated Tanka culture into the architectural texture of the original stone houses, and was rated as one of the “Top 10 Most Beautiful Homestays in Wanshan Archipelago”. The vigorous development of characteristic homestays has formed a harmonious symphony of the homestay cluster in Wanshan District, which was awarded the title of “China’s Top 8 Most Beautiful Coastal Homestay Clusters”. In 2024, the operating income of homestays in Wanshan District reached 51.815 million yuan, accounting for 76.92% of the city’s total homestay revenue, injecting vibrant impetus into the island economy.
Prospering by embracing the sea, Zhuhai has continued to deepen its development of the blue economy. On the one hand, it has accelerated the construction of “new marine infrastructure”, with breakthroughs made in major projects such as the National Marine Comprehensive Test Site (Zhuhai), the national coastal fishing port economic zone and the Wanshan International Anchorage. It is also speeding up the construction of national marine ranch demonstration zones in Wanshan and Wailingding Islands, and the market share of Zhuhai-manufactured marine ranch equipment and technology in China has reached 58%. On the other hand, Zhuhai has advanced the refined governance of islands with meticulous efforts, taking the lead in introducing China’s first comprehensive safety management regulations for sea fishing and Guangdong’s first administrative measures for island homestays. It is committed to linking the scattered islands into an integrated chain to build a world-class cluster of the most beautiful islands.
Exploration and Innovation: Integrated Reforms Forging the Zhuhai Experience
Shangzhou Village, Xiazhou Village and Xinxiang Village in Doumen Town are geographically adjacent and endowed with similar resources. To this end, Doumen Town has united the Party organizations of the three villages to innovatively set up the “Yuxinzhou Joint Party Committee”, which has further integrated resources effectively, promoted industrial linkage and unleashed the synergy for development. From 2022 to 2024, the total collective income of the three villages rose from 8 million yuan to 10.72 million yuan, successfully exceeding the 10 million yuan mark. The “Yuxinzhou Joint Party Committee” project won the first prize in the Development and Quality Improvement Category of the 2025 Zhuhai “Pioneer Cup” Work Innovation Competition, becoming one of the representative Zhuhai experiences of the Project.
In steadily advancing the integrated reforms of the Project, Zhuhai has developed a series of reform experiences with distinctive Zhuhai characteristics: innovatively building a digital financial service platform to inject financial vitality into the development of districts, towns and villages; actively exploring new measures such as the eco-friendly “fish-grass symbiosis” aquaculture model, the “Five Ones” mechanism for upgrading rural housing styles, and the new path of “inter-village cluster development” for the collective economy to address the difficulties and bottlenecks in rural development; being selected as national and provincial reform pilots in multiple fields, including the national comprehensive pilot for the market-oriented allocation of production factors and the provincial comprehensive pilot for the innovative development of the marine economy; innovating the multi-household joint construction model to meet farmers’ housing needs; and further implementing pilots such as the 30-year extension of the second round of rural land contracts and the Guangdong provincial pilot for the centralized and contiguous improvement of cultivated land. Through comprehensively deepening reforms, Zhuhai has empowered its development across the whole city.
Reporter’s Observation
At the Winter Solstice, nature paints with its unique brush: the backdrop of lucid waters and lush mountains remains unchanged.
Zhuhai also has its distinctive approach to implementing the Project: focusing on the western area, highlighting island characteristics, and anchoring efforts on towns and villages.
Among the city’s 122 administrative villages, more than 90% are located in Jinwan and Doumen Districts in western Zhuhai. The effectiveness of rural revitalization in the west directly affects the overall modernization drive of Zhuhai.
Blessed with 262 scattered islands and 9,348 square kilometers of marine resources, Zhuhai boasts distinctive marine resource endowments. Striving for prosperity by embracing the sea, advancing the rural revitalization of islands, building the “most beautiful islands”, vigorously developing marine industries and boosting island tourism are the keys to achieving the initial results of the Project in three years.
The unbalanced urban-rural and regional development is the biggest bottleneck for high-quality development. In promoting urban-rural and regional development, focusing on the development of towns and villages, turning weaknesses into potentials, and further strengthening, enriching, greening and beautifying towns and villages will help accelerate the creation of a new blueprint for coordinated urban-rural and regional development.
