Comparative Analysis on Master Plan of Village

Comparative Analysis on Master Plan of Village Reconstruction and Its Performance:

-A case study of Shangzhuang New Village by the new rural policies in China-

Yingnan WANG ＊, Rie NOMURA ＊＊, Suguru MORI ＊＊

AbstractInfluenced by China’s New Rural Polices (the Chinese government’s campaign to “construct a New Socialist Countryside”), Shangzhuang New Village (SNV) is an example of a re-organized new village. Construction of this village commenced in 2010 and was proclaimed finished in 2013. This study on the differences between the master plan of SNV and its realization aims to understand the approach taken for village reconstruction. According to the analysis of SNV im-plementation content items and participants’ roles and responsibilities, the reasons for differences between the master plan and its final condition were clarified, and the issues concerning village reconstruction were explored. Finally, this paper concludes by presenting the problems on imple-mentation of the Master Plan, and presents some recommendations for sustainable development of village reconstructions.

Keywords: Village Reconstruction, Sustainability, New countryside construction, Rural area, China

1. Introduction1.1 PurposeThis study aims to understand the approach taken for village reconstruction by verifying the plan-ning objectives and implementation procedures of the case study project, and to address various issues concerning its planning implementation and development. Furthermore, the research ob-serves that the appropriateness of village reconstruction needs to be considered in order to achieve sustainable development.1.2 Background and Previous StudiesDespite the improvement of living standards and the promotion of urbanization in China over the past three decades, with more than 700 million rural residents, China is still a predominantly rural country1). Moreover, the crises of sustainable development, such as Hollow Villages(1), land resource shortages and rising inequality, particularly, the urban–rural divide and interregional inequality remain as big problems2) . Since 2005, in order to shrink the rural-urban divide and promote sustainable development in rural areas, the Chinese government broadened the scope of rural policy with its most recent pol-icy approach of “Constructing a New Socialist Countryside” – often referred to as “New Coun-tryside Construction (NCC)”. One of the most important strategies of the NCC is to promote the process of transforming and upgrading old villages and expanding social services to rural areas.3)

＊　 Graduate School of Eng., Hokkaido University.＊＊ Faculty of Engineering, Hokkaido University.E-Mail: [email protected]

(C) 2015 City Planning Institute of Japan http://dx.doi.org/10.14398/urpr.2.31

Urban and Regional Planning Review Vol. 2, 2015 | 31

Villages Reconstruction has been initiated in many places, and is the subject of much academic research. As for how to implement NCC and reconstruct villages, both local governments and many scholars have done wide studies.4), 5) The approaches taken for village reconstruction can be classified into three types - Relocation Type, Revamp Type, and Composite Type.6) Many scholars gave suggestions on the master plan and construction from the perspectives of landscape, house design and architecture planning.7) In the previous paper, the authors understood the character-istics of the planning measures through the case study of the Shangzhuang New Village (SNV) Project. The issues of relocation and nonagricultural livelihood were addressed through the ex-amination of the pre reconstruction living situation.8) However, no actual research has been done on the examination of the master plan and its performance. At the end of 2013, the SNV project was declared completed, and further investigation into the plan’s implementation and the current post reconstruction situation is necessary.

2. Method2.1 Theoretical FrameworkThis paper took the SNV project which started from 2010 as an example of a reconstructed new village driven by the NCC. In January 2010, the Sanlihe township government promulgated the Master Plan of SNV, which proposed the planning concepts of “Sustainable Development” and “Farmer-oriented”. It not only provides planning proposals related to houses, public spaces, roads, infrastructure, security, etc., but also established the most important strategies of Living Environ-ment Improvement and Land Consolidation9), 10). However, according to the fieldwork, we found that the current situation of SNV clearly differs from the original plan, leading to high level of dissatisfaction amongst farmers and consequent problems on sustainable development8). In addition, despite some formulation strategies being utilized from the Master plan, as a matter of practicality, it is not feasible for all of contents of the Master Plan to be constructed at the same time. Funding constraints, institutional barriers, and technical unknowns will influ-ence the whole process of implementation. Moreover, while recognizing the limitations that these constraints impose, the state is unable to wait until these challenges are resolved before it begins planning, designing, and constructing projects11), and consequently, the implementers will adjust the plan as conditions change during the process of construction. Therefore, it is essential to develop a methodology that clarifies the essential points and basic conditions of the approach to reconstruction, and which includes a long-term survey and observation of the whole process. Specifically, research into the current situation and the issues of reconstruction is commencing. Based on the observations, it is seen that both physical factors and social factors, contributed to these performances. Finally, in order to prevent these kinds of adverse conditions from arising again, some principles used in the current approaches to village reconstruction will be summarized.2.2 Research structureBased on the theoretical framework above, this paper is organized as follows:The Plans of SNV before and after implementation were studied to develop a clear picture of villages’ reconstruction and applied as a basis for the further analysis. Special attention was paid to the differences between the master plan and its realization, and contributed to understanding the issues of SNV (Chapter 3). By studying the SNV implementation’s content items (physical factors), and the activities of participants (social factors), the issues which lead to the current conditions were analyzed (Chapter 4 and 5). Finally, this paper concludes by presenting the issues


encountered in the implementation of the master plan, and presents some proposals to provide a theoretical base for sustainable village reconstruction (Chapter 6).2.3 Data CollectionFirstly, in order to understand how the idea of SNV was carried out and developed, we collected the relevant data10),12-15) , including official documents, government reports and the SNV master plan. We also interviewed the project manager who played a key role in the project in order to understand the project’s background and activities, planning guidelines and organization system, the decision-making processes and methods for making project adjustments,. Finally, on-site in-vestigations, which include resident interviews and layout mapping, were conducted in October and December 2013. In addition, in order to analyze the changes of the plan and the project implementation process, it is necessary to understand the official mechanism for promoting SNV. Therefore, neighborhood plans and regional designs16), and the agreements17) between the government and other partici-pants were collected to understand the issues related to the village reconstruction.

3. Master Plan and Its realization 3.1 Overview SNV, located in Queshan County(2), Henan province in China and covering about 520 acres, planned to integrate 9 villages that were in the Northwest of Queshan County, encompassing a to-tal of 440 families and more than 2,000 people (Fig. 1). SNV is a provincial-level new rural model village and one of the first villages addressed during the construction of new rural residential com-munities in China12). In the master plan of SNV10) , comprehensive strategies of NCC, including the transformation and reconstruction of villages, land consolidation, expansion of social services and industry support to rural areas, were proposed. SNV was scheduled to be completed before the end of 2012, but the residents only started to move into their new houses from October 2013.3.2 Changes in Layout Plan Based on the comparison of the layout plans in different stages of the implementation process, some remarkable differences can be catalogued (Fig. 2, 3 and 4).

Beijing

Shanghai

Henan Province

Provicial AreaCity AreaQueshan County

0 　 0.5 1km　

●2 ●3●1▼

LEGEND

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LOCATION OF QUESHAN COUNTY, HENAN, CHINA

SHANGZHUANG NEW VILLAGE (SNV)SHANGCHENG YIDA BILINGUAL SCHOOLSANLIHE TOWNSHIP GOVERNMENTRIVERRAILWAYCOUNTY DISTRICT BOUNDARY

SHANGCHENG YIDABILINGUAL SCHOOL

◄ MAINGATE OF SNV

AERIAL VIEW OF SNV

N

Fig. 1 Current situation of SNV and its surroundings (Plan16) Plus)


PUBLIC FACILITIES:SPORTS CENTREHEALTH CENTREKINDERGARTENNURSING HOMESOFFICE BUILDING

ROAD SYSTEM:CENTRAL RING &SUBSIDIARY CROSS

HIGH-LEVEL HOUSESFOR COMMERCIALDEVELOPING

MAN-MADE RIVER

MID & HIGH-RISEAPARTMENT

TOWNHOUSES(see FIG.4-PLAN.1)

ROAD SYSTEM:NORTH-SOUTH

326 TOWNHOUSESA TYPE &B TYPE

COMMERCIAL HOUSING REGIONAREA: 142,050m2

PUBLIC FACILITIES:NURSING HOMESWASTE TRANSFER STATION

BUSSINESS HOTEL

GOVERNMENT-SUBSIDEIZED HOUSING REGION

MID-RISE APARTEMENT

0 50 150mN

0 50 150mN

PUBLIC FACILITIES:SPORTS CENTRE

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LOCATION OF BUSSINESS HOTEL CHANGED

(see FIG.4-PLAN 2&3)

0 3 9m

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MASTER PLAN（2010.1)

MADE BY: SANLIHE TOWNSHIP GOVERNMENT×

YELLOW RIVER URBAN PLANING INSTITUTE, HENAN PROVINCE

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LEGEND●A●B

CONSTRUCTION PLAN（2010.3)

MADE BY: HENAN YIFENG LIMITED CO.×

TANGSHAN CITY DESIGN INSTITUTE, HEBEI PROVINCE

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PLAN DISTRICT BOUNDARY

LAND AREA: 277,500m2

MAIN ROAD & ENTRANCES

LEGEND

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PLAN DISTRICT BOUNDARY

LAND AREA: 298,300m2

MAIN ROAD & ENTRANCES

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A TYPE 3F, 258.5m2

B TYPE 2F, 196m2

5 MID-RISE APART-MENTS CONSIS-TING OF 80 UNITS

UNDEVELOPED PE-RIPHERAL REGIONS

325 TOWNHOUSESA, B AND C TYPE

PUBLIC FACILITIES:NURSING HOMES

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PRESENT SITUATION (2013.12)CONSTRUCTED BY: HENAN YIFENG LIMITED CO.

LEGEND

▼MAIN ROAD & ENTRANCES

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A TYPE 3F, 258.5m2

B TYPE 2F, 196m2

●C C TYPE 3F, 225m2

UNDEVELOPED

(See the bottom left corner)

PUBLIC FACILITIES:WASTE TRANSFER STATION

PUBLIC FACILITIES:SPORTS CENTRE& PARKING AREA

PLAN 1

(see FIG.4-PLAN 2-4)

IN MASTER PLAN

ARRREVIATION

O

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TOTAL FLOOR AREAS: 240m2

T T TK

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PUBLIC SPACE

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PUBLIC TOILET

Types of constructed townhouses

LOCATION of KINDERGARTEN

LOCATION ofBILINGUAL SCHOOLl

Fig. 2 The Layout Plans at Different Stages (Plan10),15) Plus)

Fig. 3 Constructed Plan (Based on Fieldwork ) Fig. 4 Townhouse Plans10),15)


1) First, Changes in Housing Quantity.The original layout in the “Master Plan (MP)” covered about 277,500 m2, with 1421 residential units in the form of 459 townhouses, 41 mid-rise apartments consisting of 676 units, 17 high-rise apartments consisting of 286 units planned for construction. Among these residential units, 440 townhouses, 80 mid-rise apartment units are government-subsidized housing and the rest are commercial housing. Nonetheless, the regional division between government-subsidized housing and commercial housing was not specifically defined. However, the layout plan was revised before construction was started on March 2010 and the new plan was named “Construction Plan (CP)”15). It covered about 298,300 m2 with 406 units of government-subsidized housing, including 106 two-storey townhouses, 220 three-storey townhouses, and 80 high-rise apartment units planned for construction. Moreover, the govern-ment-subsidized housing, which was located on the south side of planning land, was clearly dis-tinguished from the commercial housing covering 156,250 square-meters. The northern side of the land was planned for commercial housing and business development. However, in the final realization plan, this part of land has not been developed. On the southern side of the land, the government-subsidized housing was completed with 70 two-storey townhouses, 255 three-storey townhouses, and 80 high-rise apartment units.2) Second, Changes in Housing Layout.Focusing on the layout of townhouses, in the MP, there is only one type, with an area of 240m2

and three floors. However, in the CP, two types were described, which were 196m2 with two floors and 258.5m2 with three floors. The room arrangement is very different from the one described in the MP. Furthermore, upon SNV’s realization, one more type of 225m2 townhouse with three floors has been constructed. It is noteworthy that the room arrangement of the three types that were already constructed is basically the same, the only differences being the number of floors and terraces. In addition, in the MP, the area at the front of the townhouses is opened to the public, while in the CP and the final layout, there are 6 meter long private yards in front of each townhouse.3) Third, Changes in the Layout of Public Facilities.Through the comparison between the MP and CP, obvious changes are found in the layout of the community and location of public facilities. In the MP, the main road system is formed by a cen-tral Ring Road and subsidiary Cross Roads. Inside the central Ring Road, the plan was to build up-scale houses, a sports centre, health centre, kindergarten, nursing homes and an office build-ing. However, in the CP, the main road system is characterized by one main road that runs from north to south. The government-subsidized housing in the southern side and the commercial hous-ing in the northern side were divided by a man-made river running from west to east. Moreover, there is a plan to build a business hotel on the northern side of the river, in the southeast corner of the commercial housing region, with a wide green space in front of the hotel. Nursing homes and a waste transfer station are planned to be built in the southwest corner of the government-subsidized housing region. However, the development of commercial housing in the northern side was never realized. The business hotel was actually built in the place reserved for the waste transfer station in the CP, while the waste transfer station was relocated to be built in the northwest corner of the govern-ment-subsidized housing area. The CP originally included five rows of townhouses in the east of the main road, but finally two more rows of townhouses were built, clearly reducing the area of green space near the man-made river. In addition, public toilets that were not in the previous plans


were built near the main south entrance.3.3 Objectives of the Master Plan and theirs Results After discussing the layout of the new community, compared to the objectives of the SNV masterplan, the current situation of relocation, land consolidation, and the effects of plan implementationwill be discussed in this section. The one objective of the master plan is to integrate 9 villages (villages A-H, J in the fig. 5). However, in the current situation only 6 of the 9 villages have signed the resettlement agreements.Meanwhile, one village named “An zhuang”, which was not on the list of original villages to be reorganized has signed the agreement. Moreover, according to the interview, we know that the discussion about the relocation of one more village - “Xiao zhuang”, which was also not on the original list, is still in process. (Fig.5) SNV is promoting the construction of the new village while focusing on incorporating small-rural villages into a new village based on a procedure called “Hop Village and Point” (Chinese pinyin: qian cun bing dian), aimed at saving rural land9). Due to the land needs for the new villageconstruction and its facilities, the farmlands of two villages are planned to be expropriated(3) whilethe rest of the farmlands would be retained and kept for farming usage. The original homesteads would be changed to farmland. However, at present, the land of all the villages has been expropri-ated by the local government. The government has not proposed any plans for these expropriated lands or farmland redistribution. In addition, most of the families have signed the resettlement agreements to convert the homesteads to farmlands. By the end of 2013, only 20 old houses had been demolished, and the procedure of land conversion had not started yet. To create a sustainable life for residents of the new villages, particularly the farmers whose farmland has been expropriated, the master plan includes strategies to develop some industries, such as a vegetable oil factory which would create 500 job opportunities, and to modernize the agriculture to increase productivity. However, this objective has not been developed to this day.

4. Content of the Implementation In order to determine the reasons for the differences between the master plan and the outcomes mentioned above, it seemed important to review the whole process of SNV construction from theplanning stage until its realization and to study the main procedures taken during its implementa-tion.

J

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LOCATION OF ORIGINAL VILLAGES

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SUNLAO ZHUANG MI ZHUANG SHANPO

YANG ZHUANG XIAOHAN ZHUANG

XIZHUANG LI ZHUANG LINZI ZHUANG AN ZHUANG SANLIDIAN XIAO ZHUANG

TOTAL

HIJK

PRESENT SITUATION OF VILLAGES RELOCATION

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LEGEND ●A ORIGINAL VILLAGES RELATED TO SNVRAILWAYOLD COUNTY DISTRICT BOUNDARYNEW CITY PLANNING (-2030)

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0 　 0.5 1km　

PLANNED to remove in MASTER PLAN

REACHEDthe relocation agreenment

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×○○○○○○×○×

UNDER DISCUSSION

9 VILLAGES7 VILLAGES

+ 1 VILLAGE(undefined)

Villages

Fig. 5 Current Situations about Villages Reorganization (Plan16) Plus)


In late November 2009, based on the NCC in China and the provincial document named “Theviews on construction of socialistic new rural residential community in Henan Province”13), the planning of SNV construction was started by Sanlihe township government. The original villages were located in a district of Queshan County subject to new usage planning, therefore, in order to prevent the problem of Urban Villages(4) from occurring, the township government planned to integrate 9 villages that are in Shangzhuang and reconstruct a new residential community named SNV. In early December, the superior government approved this plan. In January 2010, the town-ship government promulgated the master plan of SNV, with the most important strategies being Living Environment Improvement and Land Consolidation. Meanwhile, to achieve the objec-tives of the master plan successfully, the township government set up a “Construction Command Headquarters”, which was responsible for the affairs of the SNV project including expropria-tion of land, relocation compensation, construction supervision, and resettlement. In addition, the township head was appointed as the general manager at the headquarters to show the importance of NCC in local governmental affairs. At the end of 2013, the project was declared completed. Figure 6 explains how SNV would be implemented that as stated in the confirmation docu-ments of Sanlihe the township government. Based on this figure, we can see that the contents of the implementation can be roughly divided into two parts, i.e. community construction and land consolidation. Furthermore, in order to understand how SNV could be effectively implemented, we tried to collect as much relevant information as possible, and confirmed the information with the project implementer through interviews. According to the process of actual implementation, we analyzed the two main implementation items mentioned above and tried to find the reasons for the changes to the master plan.4.1 Community Construction In late December 2009, for the construction and development of SNV, the Sanlihe Township Government and Henan Yifeng Limited Co. reached a cooperation agreement that Henan Yifeng Limited Co. would be responsible for constructing the residential community. The company paid

Fig. 6 The Official Process of SNV Construction

Township government PROPOSE THE IDEA of constructing new village

POLICY PRONOUNCEMENTS TO original villages

Township government draw up the MASTER PLAN

superior government

The establishment of “CONSTRUCTION COMMAND

Determination of DEVELOPER for building the the new village.

&Determination of CONSTRUC-

TION PLAN

Township government draw up the implementation plan and

start to work

DEVELOPER start to built

Community construction related

Land Consolidation related

report

Report

Approval

Approval

land expropriation(farmland)&

REACH the agreement of land compensation and resettlement

with FARMERS

COMPETETION OF THE NEW VILLAGE

draw up the HOUSING DISTRIBU-TION plan

REACH the agreement of relocation (including homestead

coversion) with FARMERS

MOVE INTO the new houseDEMOLISH the old houseLAND CONVERSION

PLANNING PHASE

IMPLEMENTATIONPHASE


10,400,000 yuan (≈1,660,000 USD) in advance for the compensation of land requisition and the startup capital of construction. On March 2013, Henan Yifeng Limited Co. as contractor, commissioned a new designer to revise the previous design made by the local government and to draw a new plan named “Detailed Construction Plans of SNV”. In addition, because the lo-cal government could not reach resettlement agreements with 3 of the original villages planned for relocation, the need for housing reduced by around 30%; from 440 families to 315 families. Furthermore, after construction had commenced, the demand for new housing had not been com-pletely calculated, so the number of houses continued to change during construction. Moreover, because the living space per capita exceeded the allowed limit, an additional townhouse type that is 225m2 was added. In March 2010, the first phase of SNV started with the construction of government-subsidized housing located in the southern part but it was interrupted several times because of underfund-ing. In April 2012, this construction was basically completed. At the same time, the second phase started with the development of commercial housing located in northern part. However, after only two months, in June 2012, construction was interrupted due to underfunding, and it remains in this state today. Although the construction of government-subsidized housing was completed by the end of 2012, because the local government could not pay the construction costs and the construction of municipal facilities were not provided on schedule, the housing was only formally delivered for being used in September 2013. In addition, with changes to the layout of public facilities, the kindergarten, which was originally supposed to be built in center of the community, was eventually moved to the outer area and in September 2012 was located adjacent to the west of the community. At the same time, Shangcheng Yida bilingual school, which was not included in the previous plans, was completed near the kindergarten.4.2 Land ConsolidationIn late November 2009, the township governmental documents mentioned the guiding principle and basic idea of land consolidation, in which it planned to sort out 890 acres of original home-steads and save 390 acres of land via this project. Moreover, the land saved, would then be used for commercial development or changed to farmland. In late December 2009, for the purpose of SNV construction, the local government expropri-ated the all the farmland in Li zhuang and the western farmlands in Xizhang zhuang. Then up until 2013, in the name of constructing public facilities such as a factory, and urban development, the rest of the farmlands belonging to the original villages were expropriated successively. However, so far, among these expropriated lands there is no plan in place, except for the very few that have been used for SNV construction. Meanwhile, according to the Urban Development Plans of Queshan County (2012-2030)16), it can be seen that the land of all the original villages is planned to be developed as Queshan new city. The household-registration of all the farmers has changed to “non-agricultural”. With the process of urbanization in Queshan County, it can be expected that more villages will be reorgan-ized.

5. Roles and Responsibilities of ParticipantsGovernment, farmers and developers are the main participants in SNV construction. Through the study of the participants’ roles and responsibilities in the construction process, as well as the relationship between them, the issues of village reconstruction can be identified.5.1 Local government and farmers


The plan of SNV based on the central policy of NCC in China is a project led by local govern-ment. One important purpose of this project is to improve the living environment of farmers. The state has stressed the importance of farmers in the process of NCC and their status is raised as a subject several times. Having studied of the whole process of SNV construction, we found that the government is the organizer and the farmers are the objects of organization. The government made the plan to constructing a new village, and tried to reach an agreement with the farmers to let them relocate. In the case of SNV, after the local government proposed the master plan, in July 2010, the Sanlihe township government organized an NCC initiative meeting to encourage farmers to relocate. The communication between government and farmer is mainly focused on relocation compensation. It can be seen that farmers are the only objects of the relocation agreement, and their participa-tion is limited. They participate only in the process of land expropriation, but not the process of planning and construction. In other words, the farmers rarely know anything about the plan until it reached the final stages of adoption. Because the farmers, as the most direct users of the new housing, did not participate in the process of planning and construction, issues such as whether the new living environment can be adapted to the farmers’ habits, and what kind of new lifestyles would be produced, should be further surveyed and analyzed.5.2 Local government and DeveloperAs mentioned above, the development and construction of SNV is carried out by Henan Yifeng Limited Co. which is the developer. The relationship between local government and the developer has the feature of principal-agent rather than cooperation. Although the Sanlihe township gov-ernment made the master plan, the construction plan was revised by the developer without any examination and approval from the township government. This is the most direct reason for great changes occurring on the layout plan. In addition, according to the agreement between the local government and the developer, the economic benefits to the developer are ensured by the central-government funding for NCC and the commercial housing development rights, which were agreed to by the local government. In the case of SNV, the construction was interrupted several times because of underfunding, and the development of commercial housing was suspended on account of the developer being unable to see the expected benefits. Determining how to introduce the mechanism of private development, and how to ensure the consistency of the basic principles of the project, become important issues in the implementation of NCC.

6. Conclusions and RecommendationBased on the comparative analysis of the master plan of Village Reconstruction and its results be-fore and after the policy and plan implementation, this study reached the following conclusions:(1) Through the analysis of the layout plans, great changes between the original plan and the final plan can be seen. According to the study on the process of SNV implementation, it seems clear that the construction of SNV is a national policy-driven project planned by the local government. However, when it comes to practical implementation, a market mechanism was introduced, al-lowing the developer to carry out construction without any administrative supervision. The de-veloper modified the plan according to its own ideas, leading to a large number of changes in the layout plan that clearly differed from the original master plan.


(2) As a consequence of modifications to the plan mentioned above, planned construction has been carried out only in parts. After the completion of government-subsidized housing, the de-veloper could not see the expected benefits and refused to continue developing the northern area. During the construction stage, the project was continuously delayed and stagnant for lack of fund-ing. Finally the expected completion date at the end of 2012, had to be extended, the construction area was reduced from the one originally described and there is no plan to complete the project in the future.(3) The master plan included the construction of 440 townhouses and 80 mid-rise apartment units as government-subsidized housing. However, in the final constructed plan, there are a total of 405 government-subsidized houses consisting of 325 townhouses and 80 mid-rise apartment units. These differences can be explained by the unexpected problems which arose, such as the dif-ficulties encountered in reaching resettlement agreements with the farmers, which detrimentally affected the optimistic expectation of the local government. Due to the lack of study into the situa-tion of the original villages, and miscommunication, only 4/5 of the families signed the relocation agreement, resulting in a reduction of the number of houses finally constructed.(4) Apart from the community construction issues, SNV project also includes the strategies of land consolidation. According to the investigation, to this day all of the land belonging to the original villages has been expropriated by the local government. This fact clearly differs from the original plan in which a part of the villages’ farmland would be retained by the farmers them-selves. However, the local government has not started to make use of this expropriated land to carry out its land consolidation strategies. At present it is premature to make a conclusion as to whether it can reach its full objectives or not. It is important for the local government to consider how to utilize the land more efficiently.(5) In addition, although the local government claims that the project has been completed, a com-parison with the objectives of the master plan shows that some important points relating to the creation of a sustainable life for the residents have not been accomplished. These include indus-trial restructuring and the construction of facilities that to this day are not present in any specific plans or implementation schedule. A lot of the strategies of the master plan are still in concept stage, and the sustainability of the newly constructed village remains a big problem which the government must deal with.

Village reconstruction based on NCC should integrate the rural elements and broader regional developments, including rural-urban linkages.18) However, the local government as the organ-izer of village reconstruction should consider the important issue of how to control and coordi-nate these elements to achieve sustainability. Based on the conclusions above, we consider that the purpose of village reconstruction should be to improve rural livelihoods and not to increase political capital or economic benefits. The end results should be towards regional sustainability by the means of integrating both natural resources and labor on a big scale. Moreover, in order to ensure that the project achieves its objectives, the planning and implementation procedure should encourage more participation from the project’s agents, as well as the transparency of the process. And in order to appropriately introduce private organizations into the project, a system of supervi-sion should be introduced to ensure that works are consistent with the original plan and that the integrity of the original plan is not compromised.


Notes(1) Hollow village is a proper noun that emerged in China in the early 1990s. It is a micro geo-

graphic phenomenon and contains two essential features, i.e., 1) a significant loss of land resources in rural areas due to housing developments annexing massive amounts of land in recent years; 2) a decrease in the number of residents in the village due to urbanization. Most village centers become hollow in such villages; as a result, their building density decreases, and construction area per capita continually increases.19)

(2) Administrative divisions of China: there are five practical levels of local government, i.e., the province, prefecture, county, township, and lowest level-village. In this paper, Shangzhuang New Village is village level, under Sanlihe Township. Sanlihe Township is controlled by Que-shan County. Henan Province is two levels higher than Queshan County.

(3) Land expropriations in China: In China land ownership is separated from land use rights. Land ownership is divided into two categories: state owned land and collectively owned land. In another words, all land is owned either collectively or by the state. Rural land, or housing land and the household contract farmland, is collectively owned. Collectively owned construction land in rural areas must first be acquired by a local government and become State-owned land before being transferred to a realty developer for construction.

(4) Urban villages (Chinese pinyin: cheng zhong cun) are a unique phenomenon that formed part of China’s urbanization efforts. These can also be called “Villages in cities”. Life in China’s urban village is vastly different from the traditional agricultural way of life due to the lack of farmland. However life is also very different from that of the cities because urban villages are not regulated by any form of centralized urban planning. Most of them are heavily populated, intensely developed, and lack infrastructure.

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Documents

Comparative Analysis on Master Plan of Village