Nation's first agricultural park transforms rural lives

The Lanling National Agricultural Park, located in Daicun village in Lanling county, Shandong province, is the first national-level agricultural park in China. A combination of modern agriculture and tourism, as well as cultural and agricultural history, the park presents a beautiful, vivid picture of Lanling as "the hometown of vegetables in China".

Today, Daicun is peaceful, clean and tidy, and residents enjoy happy lives. As hard as it is to imagine, just 20 years ago, things looked totally different.

In 1999, Wang Chuanxi, who was in his early 30s and a successful businessman involved in construction, decided to do something for his home village. He had been unanimously elected as village Party branch secretary, but the village collective was deep in debt and Daicun had an unfortunate reputation as a poor, dirty place.

"As long as we find the right way, we are not afraid of difficulties," Wang said, summarizing his previous business experience. He set about inspiring his fellow villagers to change their lives.

He immediately discounted the idea of making money by selling land or developing polluting industries like some neighboring villages had done. Instead, with the villagers' support, Wang began building parks and gardens.

The village set aside agricultural land for a project entitled "five gardens, one belt". This was to be comprised of a flower garden, a fruit garden, a vegetable garden, a fine seed demonstration garden, an agricultural sightseeing garden and a national fitness belt.

The projects began taking shape in 2002. At the time, the combination of agriculture and tourism was somewhat avant-garde, and many people took a wait-and-see attitude to Wang's projects.

Despite this, Wang showed confidence and foresight.

He took the collective on visits to other model villages in Shandong and Jiangsu to learn from their experiences. He told villagers that only when the collective became strong would it benefit and, more importantly, that it was only through shared prosperity that the village could avoid wealth gaps.

According to the village's rules, regardless of the investment and management model followed－be it a collective joint-stock system, a joint-stock cooperative system or mixed ownership－the collective's share of a project should be at least 50 percent to ensure that it can have a say.

In 2007, the Daicun collective signed land transfer agreements with 2,200 farmers in five neighboring villages for more than 467 hectares of land and hired experts from the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences to design a high standard agricultural demonstration park that covers nearly 700 hectares.

The decision proved farsighted. Five years later, rural and agricultural tourism began to developing in earnest. Shandong started to actively promote development of agricultural parks, a concept seemingly tailor-made for Daicun.

That same year, the Lanling National Agricultural Park, which was based on the "five gardens, one belt" idea first suggested by Wang, was approved as the country's first national agricultural park.

Since then, the influx of tourists has brought in a great deal of revenue. Not only have the village's infrastructure and facilities been modernized, but the public services provided by the collective have also been greatly improved.

The park brings jobs, pensions and education to the villagers. Every resident has work, and every family earns a share of the bonus income. Today in Daicun, the young are educated, employed and have access to medical treatment, while the elderly and the vulnerable receive support and are able to lead pleasant lives.

Over the years, Wang has continued to insist that no matter how great Daicun's achievements, development should remain people-centered and oriented toward prosperity for all.