By Ning Xia, Research Team on “China’s Villages toward 2035”, Research Department of Rural Economy, DRC

Research Report, No.132, 2021 (Total 6197) 2021-5-24

Abstract: In the rural areas, China’s traditional villages are spread densely in an even manner across the country, with the households densely concentrated within the village. This type of layout formed in the pre-modern agricultural society with rural population as the majority, reflects the traditional ethics of agricultural society, and serves the production means of small-scale farming, which all conflict with the needs of modernization featured by industrialization and urbanization. In the new development stage of modernization, this traditional village layout will, driven by internal and external factors in rural areas as well as national policies, transform toward a new one that fits better with modernization needs. Industrialization, urbanization, IT application and other external forces will drive the macro-layout adjustment on the surface, while rural industries, social building and rural governance and other inherent factors within villages for reform will propel their domestic spatial adjustment. Meanwhile, national supportive policies for rural renewal, poverty alleviation, regional development and ecological function zones also will affect village layout adjustment.

Keywords: adjustment of village layout, modernization, drivers