Post-disaster reconstruction in Chengdu is not recovery and construction in a simple sense. The city applied balanced urban-rural development and made substantial progress.

Scientific reconstruction through balancing urban-rural development

The 2008 Wenchuan earthquake was the most destructive, widespread and hardest to provide post-disaster relief since the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949. It inflicted heavy losses in Dujiangyan, Pengzhou, Congzhou and Dayi, regions near the epicenter of Wenchuan and under the jurisdiction of Chyengdu city. The quake left 4,307 people dead and affected 2.9 million people. The subsequent international financial crisis added insult to injury, putting Chengdu, the only super-large hub city in southwest China, under severe tests.

During the three-year, post-quake reconstruction, Chengdu has put forward "Four Unites”, an effort to unite post-disaster reconstruction by creating a test zone for national comprehensive reform for coordinated development of urban and rural areas. It will also unite home reconstruction with social and economic development, unite material reconstruction with spiritual recovery, and unite government promotion with people’s self-rescue, market operation and social participation.

Abiding by these principles, the city has pushed forward the “Three Concentrates”, to facilitate the industry to concentrate in centralized development zones, to direct farmers to concentrate in towns and new rural communities, and to promote land to properly concentrate in the hands of scaled business operators. Concentrating these types of business in certain areas will help realize centralized and innovative industrialization, urbanization and agricultural modernization.

Chengdu has explicitly put forward of its main objectives of “overall recovery in three years” and “all-round elevation in five years” to draw up a blueprint for post-disaster reconstruction.

Chengdu is mainly relying on scientific planning as the basis for scientific reconstruction and development. It has planned and optimized urban and rural functions and resources allocation. It will guide and create sound development prospects. In this process, scientific planning has taken the leading role in refining and formulating the principle of integrating development, diversity, fusion and sharing. It has built up, since the disaster, 759 new rural communities that have complete facilities for industrial support, public service and social management. It has cultivated Hongkou, Bailu and Jiezi towns for cultural tourism, as well as a large number of modern agricultural pilot bases. It has made new urban and rural landscape that harmonizes modern city and modern countryside a reality. It integrates historical culture and modern civilization.

The city has made substantial breakthroughs with the establishment of the new planning principle, which furnishes a concrete and feasible approach to construct modern new countryside. The planning principle has overcome the drawbacks of farmers building rural houses along roads, without scientific planning, which wastes land resources and are insecure and vulnerable to disasters. It has also cast off the idea to directly clone urban residential quarters in rural areas. Experts say this is a breakthrough in the concept of Chinese socialist countryside construction.

Realize harmonious reconstruction by respecting people’s will

To realize strategic objectives for post-disaster reconstruction, Chengdu has fully respected people’s will in the process. The objectives were designed to satisfy the people rather than deciding for the people. Quake victims were invited to participate in the establishment and choosing of the policies and programs, fully display the initiatives of the people, and stimulate people’s wisdom and creativity.

Chengdu has energetically advanced democracy at the local level and improved the grassroots governance mechanism. It has set a fundamental working principle to “fully respect people’s will, and penetrate to do the mass work” in post-disaster reconstruction. It has relied on villagers’ self-governance to solve all problems in post-disaster reconstruction. The villages, teams and communities of disaster areas have all set up councils and boards of supervisors for self-government. Those councils discuss all the issues the people consider vital, such as reconstruction modes, planning programs, house designs and construction supervision to ensure healthy, orderly and harmonious progress.

When the first reconstruction program was submitted to the public at Luping village, Cifeng town of Pengzhou city, the newly established village council of Luping village voted against it in accordance with the residents’ views. Afterwards, the 33 village council members, elected by 14 resident teams in the village, made household surveys every day and solicited opinions from each family. The new planning program, amended several times, was passed by a majority vote at the villagers’ meeting.

In the course of compiling the reconstruction program, local people are no longer passive receivers of the program. Instead, they have become the final decision makers of the program. For instance, the housing reconstruction program of a farmer in Dujiangyan city was revised 15 times to accomodate public opinions.

Fully believing in the people, relying on the people and “letting the people have final say” in post-disaster reconstruction: In this way, Chengdu has effectively settled disputes over benefits and explored multiple reconstruction methods. It has also inspired people’s wisdom and initiatives. The new village-level governance mechanism is glittering with brilliant rays of grassroots wisdom. It has enriched the Chinese practice of democracy at the grassroots level.

The 100,000 affected residents of urban Dujiangyan areas have creatively explored 12 modes of urban housing reconstruction – such as combined type reconstruction – through voluntary combination among neighbors, buildings and residential quarters. They have solved the problems of complicated benefit relations, hard-to-unify wills and hard-to-define properties.

Protect people’s livelihood by integrating public services for urban and rural areas and industrial rejuvenation

Chengdu has eliminated obstacles to supply equal fundamental public services to urban and rural residents. In post-disaster reconstruction, the city keeps long-term development in mind, accelerates integrated fundamental public services for urban and rural areas, speeds up industrial rejuvenation, and fully enhances long-range development capacity of the disaster areas. It improves the victims’ lives.

In line with the requirements and standards to harmonize urban and rural construction, Chengdu has built up, in same places, complete sets of infrastructure and public service facilities. This has facilitated an equal supply of fundamental public services in urban and rural areas, and establishment of an integrated employment, education, health service and social security system to ensure the earthquake victims live and work in peace and happiness.

Tianma town is located in a remote area. But local villagers have enjoyed public utilities just as urban residents have since reconstruction. The town has the necessary infrastructure, such as pipeline natural gas, a broadband network, asphalt roads and underground pollution discharge.

Chengdu disaster areas have fully recovered in transportation, energy and water irrigation facilities. The city has invested 13 billion yuan to construct the Chengdu-Dujiangyan express railway, which shortens the trip from downtown Chengdu to Qinchengshan to only 30 minutes.

Post-disaster reconstruction has allowed Chengdu to overcome deficiencies in rural public service. It has taken the lead role in reforming the village-level public services and social management. The municipal and county governments will arrange to earmark no less than 200,000 yuan each year to each village to fundamentally improve rural grassroots public service conditions. By balancing urban and rural public services, Chengdu has elevated living conditions of rural people in disaster areas much better than its pre-earthquake level.

Chengdu has integrated post-disaster reconstruction with the rural property right system reform that aims to unify urban and rural comprehensive supplementary reforms. Rural households in disaster areas have been granted the “collective land right of use certificate” and “farmland protection card”. Under the farmland protection fund mechanism that goes along with the property right system reform, farmers assuming the liability of protecting farmlands are subsidized at 300-400 yuan per mu in purchasing social security insurance. The reform has also stimulated rural financial innovation, greatly facilitated arable land protection and modern agricultural development. New collective economic organizations have been expanding.

Chengdu is speeding up industrial recovery and rejuvenation its disaster areas. It has optimized as a whole the industrial structure and allocation, as well as cultivated a number of quality modern agriculture bases and tourism brands with regional features. That has laid a solid foundation for current and long-term development of the disaster areas.

Pengzhou city has set up the largest farm produce logistics park in southwest China, as well as the Huangcun agricultural scientific and technological pilot zone. The seven industrial bases are enjoying flourishing business for vegetables, ligusticum wallichii and cold water fish. Local farmers have been taking in higher incomes.

Hongkou, the “islet” of Dujiangyan which experienced a seemingly hopeless situation after the earthquake, has elevated its industries and become a national AAAA-level tourism zone. It has attracted 3 billion yuan in investments for tourism projects. The Happy Farmhouse of Tai’an Village, Qingchengshan, Dujiangyan, was reopened after the earthquake, and earned 40,000 yuan during a trial operation over half of a month.

In helping all the people have their own dwellings, the city manages to have all working-age people find jobs. In 2010, Dujiangyan, the hardest hit area, dynamically wiped off “zero employment families” and kept the urban registered unemployment rate within 1.9 percent.

Ge Honglin, deputy secretary of Chengdu Municipal Party Committee and Chengdu mayor, said that the earthquake hit areas of Chengdu have fully recovered economically and have exceeded the pre-earthquake levels. The city has "realized rebirth in economic progress”, he said.

Reconstruction brings at least a decade’s leap-forward

Visit the earthquake-stricken areas again in Chengdu, and you will see a charming landscape at each shelter along the road.

In Luping village, Cifeng Town of Pengzhou, rural courtyards are well-spaced, with complete infrastructures and domestic installations. Village taverns have unique styles beside scenic lotus ponds. In the production bases, cash crops like edible mushrooms, Chinese medicinal crops and kiwi fruits are growing vigorously. Gao Yuhua, a villager of Luping, sighed with emotion. “We have improved our lives by at least 20 years in the post-disaster reconstruction,” he said.

In the Rong Family Courtyard of Chongyi town, Dujiangyan, new rural houses have been built in stunning beauty against green wild land. In 2010, the village was awarded the creative and international community prize by the United Nations International Academy of Architecture.

In the tourism villages of Jiezi town, Chongzhou, Chinese primitive country lifestyles, featuring lotus ponds, stone bridges, gardens, grassy areas and courtyards, are integrated with modern elements. The places host complete facilities for fitness centers, libraries and children’s parks.

Such storybook changes have taken place in 759 key reconstruction locations of Chengdu.

Walking into Chengdu’s disaster areas, each town has been equipped with standardized schools, a public hospital, seniors’ home, sewage treatment plant, police substation, culture station and distance education facilities. In addition, Chengdu has planned to allocate quality education resources in urban and rural areas through collectivization. It allows rural children in disaster areas to go to elite schools.

At the Shuimofang settlement in Qingjiang village, Cuiyuehu town, Dujiangyan, a villager carved eight Chinese characters in a wall of his house, reading “The Communist Party is good for people.” Xiong Zequan, the house owner, said, “I’ve moved into the new house. I’ve had more money in my wallet. I simply want to express my gratitude to the Party and government with these words.”

"The post-disaster reconstruction has enabled us to live a much better life,” said Zhao Guohua, a villager from the Gaodun settlement of Jiezi Town, Chongzhou. Zhao and other villagers have all enjoyed employment, medical care, social security and education services – just as urban residents have.

Chengdu has received enthusiastic responses of the mass of people in promoting the activity of “new homestead, new life and new prevailing customs” in the course of reconstructing centralized settlements for farmers. The settlement quarters have displayed a new atmosphere featuring fascinating living environments and genial folk customs. Local residents have substantially changed in styles of conversation and patterns of behavior.

At the Wugui activity center of Cuiyuehu town, Su Caixia, director of the village women’s committee, spent 10,000 yuan of the village public service fund to buy dance dresses and teaching facilities under the approval of the village council. Each night, Su organized entertainment activities by lecturing villagers to dance Guozhuang dance and body building exercises. Villagers are enjoying diversified cultural lives after moving into the centralized settlements.

Historical calamities are always compensated with historical progress. Chengdu’s victory in post-disaster reconstruction is a success of coping with crisis and marching forward despite heavy burdens. It is also an all-round victory of turning danger into opportunity, deepening coordinated urban and rural reform, and accelerating modern garden-based city construction.