Songyang, Zhejiang – a County Model Of Rural Revitalization and Common Prosperity

Songyang County is located in the mountainous area of southern Zhejiang, and is the most beautiful core area of the Grand Garden of Zhejiang. It has been known as the "Peach Blossom Spring" since ancient times. With a history of more than 1,800 years, it is a famous historical and cultural city in Zhejiang Province, and also one of the areas with the most complete system of historical and cultural cities, towns, and villages in East China, with the best inheritance of local culture. It is known as the "Last Secret Land in the South of the Lower Reaches of the Yangtze River".

(Yingzui Pond, Songyin Brook)

In recent years, Songyang has taken the approach of "promoting cultural tourism with ecological advantages, enhancing industrial capacity through attracting large-scale investment, and leading industrial development with digital economy" to thoroughly implement the development concept of "green water and mountains are gold and silver mountains". With cultural guidance as the orientation and common prosperity as the pursuit, Songyang has developed a rural revitalization path that integrates urban and rural areas, traditional and modern elements, protection and development, and economic and cultural mutual promotion and complementarity. In the first half of 2023, Songyang's GDP was 7.138 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 9.1%, with a growth rate ranking first in Lishui prefecture, and the increase was 3.6, 2.3, and 1.5 percentage points higher than the national, provincial, and municipal levels respectively. The bright performance was attributed to the new features of eco-agriculture, intelligent transportation, cultural tourism, among other.

Songyang County is committed to promoting sustainable agricultural development by using modern agricultural technology and methods while paying attention to the protection of the ecological environment. To ensure the sustainability of agricultural production, we will plan comprehensively and improve the infrastructure of farmland. Since the implementation of the "non-grain" rearrangement and optimization work in the grain production function zone, the CPC Songyang County Committee and County Government have earnestly implemented the instructions of General Secretary Xi Jinping on ensuring food security and protecting cultivated land. We will continue to grasp the initiative of food security unswervingly.

(Tea Garden, Sanduxiang Township)

Songyang County has increased investment in the smart transportation industry and intelligent transportation innovation demonstration applications, and is making every effort to build a comprehensive transportation industry with a billion-dollar smart transportation core. At the same time, it is also building intelligent transportation application scenarios to improve the efficiency and safety of road traffic. Through intelligent transportation management systems, traffic flow can be monitored and adjusted in real-time, traffic networks can be optimized, and traffic congestion problems can be alleviated.

(Intelligent transportation industry park)

Songyang County emphasizes the protection and inheritance of local culture, promoting traditional culture through renovating historical sites and organizing cultural activities. Based on the unused old houses in traditional villages, Songyang County attracts global residents to rent the houses, promoting the integrated development of industries with old houses as carriers. This service attracts visitors who are suitable for living, travelling, and starting businesses in Songyang, finally forming the digital business recruitment, transaction normalization of rural assets in Songyang County, and helping rural industries increase their value and income. At the same time, Songyang County improves tourism infrastructure, including hotels, scenic spots, and transportation, to enhance tourists' tourism experience. According to local conditions, Songyang County launches various tourism products based on natural scenery and cultural characteristics to attract tourists and promote the development of tourism industry.

(Beautiful county road)

Nowadays, Songyang County's economy is developing well, with rich resources and a prosperous people. The integration of urban and rural areas and ecological living make Songyang County an ideal place for people to live. With the accelerated development of the eco-agriculture, smart transportation, cultural tourism, and other three aspects, Songyang County has laid a solid foundation for sustainable development.

Ecological agriculture: The optimization of non-grain cultivation to write a new chapter of green agriculture

As a traditional agricultural county, Songyang has a reputation as "Songyang's agriculture is mature, and Chuzhou is sufficient" and is called the "grain granary of Chuzhou". Since 2021, Songyang County has adhered to the party building leading, launched a three-level linkage of villages, towns and counties, comprehensively launched the "non-grain" cultivation and optimization work of grain production functional areas, completed the repair and optimization of 50,000 acres, and fully completed the provincial and municipal tasks.

In order to ensure that the farmland after remediation can grow good grain and sell good grain, Songyang County explores the implementation of the benefit coupling mode of "enterprise management + major farmers planting + order harvest", adopts the farmers' transfer to the strong village company of the township, and then the strong village company transfers it uniformly to the County Rural Revitalization Service Group. 58 strong planting management entities such as Zhejiang Hongzhuan Grain and Oil Co., Ltd. are introduced to achieve unified planting management to ensure closed-loop management of "ploughing, planting, management, and harvest".

At the same time, it actively carries out the pilot demonstration of "rice +" mode, innovates and promotes the model of rice fish cultivation, rice turtle (shrimp) symbiosis, rice ear rotation and other modes for more than 1000 acres, effectively improving the per capita yield and promoting farmers' income. Agricultural industry has entered a new era of diversified development.

In addition, it strengthens agricultural technology training, promotes the transformation of labor force, continuously promotes agricultural efficiency, farmers' income diversification and development of agricultural industry. For example, it builds a strong county platform for edible fungi industry, expands and strengthens the "Songyang fresh mushroom" industry to help strong villages become rich.

The development of ecological agriculture not only improves farmers' production and living conditions, but also provides abundant agricultural resources for Songyang and forms a virtuous cycle of agricultural ecosystem chain.

(Agriculture + Solar Power Generation)

Industrial development of integrated transportation: striving to achieve a stable start in the development of intelligent transportation industry

With the goal of building a comprehensive transportation industry with a billion-dollar smart transportation core, Songyang County has formulated the "14th Five-Year Plan for the Development of the Comprehensive Transportation Industry" and the "Three-Year Action Plan for the Development of the Smart Transportation Industry from 2023 to 2025". With quick and decisive actions, Songyang has established a comprehensive strategic cooperation with Baidu and obtained the provincial-level "double pilot" -- in April 2022, the Provincial Transport Leading Group for Strong Transport Construction awarded Songyang as the "pilot county for the development of the smart transportation industry in Zhejiang Province", and in September, the "pilot project for autonomous driving and smart transportation to promote common prosperity in mountainous areas" was included in Zhejiang Province's transportation powerhouse pilot.

Adhering to the development strategy of "transforming resources into industries and transforming pilots into projects", after more than a year of efforts, the development of the industry has achieved a stable start and a comprehensive start. This series of innovations not only improves the efficiency of transport facilities operation, but also makes residents' travel more convenient, laying a solid foundation for urban development. As of now, the framework of industrial development has basically been established, and overall development has also achieved certain results. Songyang will continue to improve and optimize industrial development policies and mechanisms, attract large-scale investment accurately, promote the complementation and expansion of industry chains, and strive to achieve a total output value of 10 billion by 2025.

(Panoramic view of the park)

Tourism development: The first batch of national cultural industry empowerment rural revitalization pilot projects

In the first batch of cultural industry empowerment rural revitalization pilot projects announced by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Songyang County was listed. In recent years, based on the rescue of old houses and the protection and utilization of traditional villages, more than half of the villages have integrated mountain villa tourism, cultural creativity, e-commerce economy and other new industries. Songyang has become the only national-level all-inclusive tourism demonstration zone in Lishui and a provincial-level joint demonstration zone for common prosperity construction. It has won the two consecutive awards for common prosperity evaluation in Zhejiang Province in 2021 and 2022, respectively. It has also been rated as a provincial-level cultural tourism integration pilot zone, a provincial-level cultural tourism consumption pilot city, and a provincial-level cultural heritage ecological protection zone. It is also the county with the highest activity level of agricultural product live streaming in China's village e-commerce platform "TikTok".

On December 12, 2022, the first batch of "traveling" series of old houses completed its investment recruitment and trading transaction. The "traveling in Songyang" plan will enter a normal stage of digital investment recruitment and trading. The county will carry out four special thematic investment trading activities each year. At the same time, attention will be paid to offline promotion work to drive traditional villages' industrial value-added and create value for rural revitalization and common prosperity construction demonstration areas. In 2022, GDP growth rate ranked first among mountainous counties in Zhejiang Province, and village collective economic development index ranked first in Zhejiang Province.

The "Traveling and Staying in Songyang" plan is an innovative action that relies on Songyang's complete village system and vivid cultural form to attract investors worldwide through idle houses. Launched by the Songyang County Cultural Broadcasting and Tourism Bureau, this plan aims to promote talents, funds, projects, and consumption to enter rural areas. By incorporating creativity, design, music, art, technology into cultural tourism development, it explores ways to enhance rural human values, enhance rural aesthetic charm, enhance rural tourist attraction, and cultivate new sources of rural development. The "Traveling and Staying in Songyang" plan analyzes idle assets and traditional villages' multiple values and significance in Songyang's mountainous economic development to form a complete theoretical system for "traveling in Songyang" and explore new paths for common prosperity that can be replicated and applied nationwide.

With its unique natural scenery and profound cultural heritage, Songyang attracts a large number of tourists and investors. In recent years, with the rise of cultural tourism industry, Songyang has become a well-known tourist destination. Urban planning projects such as cultural relics and characteristic towns have made Songyang's cultural tourism resources increasingly popular, becoming an ideal place for tourists to visit repeatedly.

(Damushan Cycling Tea Garden)

In the era of comprehensive development, Songyang County has demonstrated outstanding overall strength. Through the transformation and upgrading of ecological agriculture, the technological innovation of intelligent transportation, and the thriving development of tourism and cultural industries, Songyang is embracing a new appearance and looking forward to a more prosperous future.