A rural-urban continuum that better defines the path to sustainable growth

When I rode a shared bike along a riverside path, which is flanked by paddy fields on one side and waterborne plants on the other, on January 8, I didn't immediately realize I was in the same Shanghai village I had visited nearly three years ago.

I thought I was rambling in some sort of country resort where one could enjoy enchanting bird chirps and the soothing sound of rustling reeds. Part of the newly built waterfront path is made of antiseptic wood, so when I rode on it, it produced a pleasant rhythmic sound, as if an artisan were softly scraping and shaving wood pieces.

As I rode along, however, I came across a familiar riverside home for the rural elderly, an unmistakable landmark of Shanshen Village, which literally means a village tucked away in deep mountains. Although there are no mountains around, the poetic name did properly depict the once-secluded nature of the village, which had been inaccessible to most cyclists or tourists for a long time for lack of infrastructural improvement.

I suddenly remembered that when I drove to the village about three years ago, I had to park my car outside the village and then walked slowly and cautiously – almost tiptoeing – along rough country roads partly covered by wild grass and fallen twigs. There was roadside litter as well.

At that time, walking in the village, I could see trucks and cranes moving on the construction sites of Huawei Technologies' new R&D center across the Beihenggang River. With few riverside trees, bushes or reeds as possible shelter against the winter cold, I found myself exposed to intermittent harsh winds sweeping over the face of the waters as I trudged along the rough roads.

Some local farmers, who were removing roadside grass while planting flower pots along the unpaved roads, told me vaguely that things would get better in a few years, but they didn't know exactly how things would pan out. They didn't know (nor did I), for example, that Shanghai's Metro Line 17 would extend westward to add a stop near the village, or a bucolic 43-kilometer riverside pedestrian and cyclist path would pass through the village.

Nor did they know that a new footbridge would be built to link Huawei's compound with the village, or a major investment company in Shanghai would help spruce up the village's infrastructure and residential houses, so that a more enjoyable rural landscape would mesh with the eco-friendly environment of Huawei's huge R&D center.

Nearly three years ago, I had to drive over one hour to reach the then largely secluded village, passing through some bumpy and dusty roads along the way. Last week, however, it took me about 50 minutes to arrive at the village, and I did it with much lower carbon footprints – I took the subway first and then took a shared bike at the exit of the new station at Xicen in Jinze Town, suburban Qingpu District.

All of a sudden, the once-secluded and rustic village has become a "back garden" of Huawei and, for that matter, a potential venue for the city's triathlon and marathon events. The formal opening of Metro Line 17's Xicen Station on November 30 has brought the village to the doorsteps of many urban residents from near and far. Rent a shared bike at the exit of Xicen Station, and you will arrive at the village in about 15 minutes.

"Many farmers in the village have rented their revamped homes to Huawei staff," a 62-year-old security guard surnamed Bao told me. I chanced upon him during my field trips on Juanury 8 in Shanshen Village when he was on duty to guard the western gate of a huge country park known for its well-preserved wetlands and waterborne fir trees.

He added: "I live in a nearby village and I've also rented two rooms to two staff members from Huawei. They moved in last December. One of my neighbors, who lives in another apartment in town, has rented his three-story rural house, which has more than 10 rooms in total, to Huawei staff. His monthly rental income from the house alone is close to 20,000 yuan (about US$2,728)."

The sea change in Shanshen Village in about three years, in terms of both rural landscape and farmers' income, attests to the importance of infrastructural improvement in the country's rural revitalization drive.

In 2022, the Yangtze River Delta Investment (Shanghai) Co Ltd participated in a project involving an investment of 860 million yuan to spruce up Shanshen Village's infrastructure and rural residential houses. About the same year, work began on a 4.2km riverside pedestrian and cyclist path, mainly encompassing the village. It has largely been completed now, as I discovered on my January 8 trip. It's part of a 43km riverside path to be completed by the year's end, benefiting more villages nearby.

Although it's only a bridge apart from Huawei's R&D compound – sort of a town onto itself – Shanshen Village is not the only major beneficiary of a symbiotic rural-urban landscape and an extended subway line. Lianhu Village, which literally means a village by a lotus lake, has also come under the limelight lately for having become another "back garden" of Huawei, whose new R&D center began to operate toward the end of last year.

"Fifteen farmers' houses, with 60 rooms in total, have been rented by Huawei staff," You Jian, an official of Lianhu Village, told me in an improvised onsite interview at the village last Wednesday.

It was an unprepared interview, because of my spur-of-the-moment decision to ride from Shanshen to Lianhu at dusk, after I found out the two villages are only about 5 kilometers apart. And when I finally pedaled my way into Lianhu Village, I chanced upon two fellow journalists from another major newspaper, who had scheduled an interview with local officials and managers about the village's homestay business, among other things. I happily listened to their discussion, while conducting sort of an improvised interview on the site.

"How do Huawei staff commute between the village and their offices? By car or what else?" I asked.

"Some of them drive mopeds or ride bikes, and some others even prefer to walk about 40 minutes to their offices," You replied.

Later I learned that some of the Huawei staff who live in the village, mostly young people, prefer to get up very early and walk to their offices through quiet and refreshing riverside fields. I also learned that the village is so quiet and pristine that residents here can hardly order food deliveries – an apparent "challenge" for many youngsters today.

"How can these young staff endure such an 'inconvenient' way of life?" I mused.

"Some young people who like food deliveries may have chosen to rent rooms in nearby Fenhu area of Suzhou City, but those who settle in our village may prefer to live and think in a quieter environment," You explained with an understanding smile.

It was getting really dark when I began to ride back, but I was in no hurry. The enveloping calm of night was inviting to a nature lover like me, and I abandoned myself in the quiet pleasure of passing lakes and fields on my way back to Huawei and Xicen Station. As the last rays of sunset sank into the mirror-like lakes, office lights from Huawei were turned on in the distance. It was a soothing trip, enabled by a bike and a better landscape.

A bigger story

Huawei is part of a bigger story of scientific and technological development at the heart of the Yangtze River Delta region. To the west of Huawei's R&D center, another scientific and technological innovation zone is rising, extending urban infrastructure further westward to mesh with more and more local rural landscapes.

Another day, I rode a shared bike to Cenbu Village, about 3km to the west of Huawei, and found many office and residential apartments had just been completed at this innovation zone that borders Cenbu. According to local news reports, sports and cultural facilities will also be built in the zone.

Seeing that a group of young people was enjoying afternoon tea and coffee and card games in the rustic courtyard of a rural cafe in Cenbu Village, I parked my bike and ordered a cup of coffee made with a special ingredient: dried osmanthus fragrans collected from the village.

The owner of the Uncle Mao Xun Cafe is a lady just over 20 years old. I learned in our casual chat that she hails from Guangdong Province and has been running the cafe business in Cenbu for four years.

"Business here is fine, as many urban visitors like to relax in a rural setting during weekends," she said. "And we've become a country hub of cyclists and motorists as well."

Talking about the innovation center being built near the village, she said she believes it will bring more potential customers to her rural cafe.

As we chatted, I found a young man sitting quietly in a cozy corner of the cafe, decorated by musical instruments, including a guitar and an old tape recorder, and colorful artifacts from Nepal. He was apparently working on a laptop.

At first I thought he was a customer – a coffee connoisseur – but later learned he's the boyfriend of the cafe owner and an engineer from Huawei, responsible for communication code development.

"We used to live far apart," the young man said. "Before Huawei moved here, I worked in the Pudong office and we could only meet once a week. I rented a small apartment room of about 20 square meters in Pudong, which is about 100km from Cenbu Village."

"Now we've rented a 100-square-meter apartment in a nearby community in Fenhu, which is just about 20 minutes' drive from the village," he said with a touch of pride. "Everyday I drop her in the village cafe first, and then drive about five minutes to Huawei."

I told him that commuting between Suzhou's Fenhu area and Shanghai's Qingpu District used to take a longer time before new roads and bridges were built a few years ago to better connect the two regions, which sit at the core area of the demonstration zone for the integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta region.

"Wow, we are lucky, then, to move here at the right time," the couple exclaimed.

Asked what she likes most about doing cafe business in a village, the young woman thought for a while and said: "I like to observe the change of the colors of tree leaves in different seasons and enjoy exchanging ideas with different people. Plus, my landlord is very nice. He talks little, but is considerate. He often asks me to take (as many) vegetables as we like from his own small field."

As we chatted away, two old men came to the cafe and sat quietly in the courtyard, one of them puffing at a cigarette, like a typical Chinese peasant smoking to kill time. I went out and talked to them.

"Are you local farmers?"

"Yes," they said.

"Are you just walking around and killing time?" I asked.

"Yes," they said, with a smile but no more words.

I went back into the cafe. The girl said: "The one who faces us (not smoking) is my landlord. He is nice."

Such a low-key yet harmonious relationship between a cafe owner and her farmer landlord reflects to a certain extent a growing trend in which urban and rural lifestyles are coming closer and meshing well.

As I rode in Cenbu Village before coming to discover the rural cafe, I noticed that a new passenger railway line linking Shanghai and neighboring Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces was being built right across the village. In other words, the village will be seated between two stations when the railway line is completed by 2026.

Recreating landscapes

Extending infrastructural developments to the countryside, a policy reaffirmed at the Central Rural Work Conference held last December, goes a long way toward reviving the country's villages. During my field studies over the past one month, I could see how infrastructural investment has benefited the rural economy and life.

In the 1980s and 1990s, township enterprises arose across the country as a driving force behind rural growth, in addition to traditional agricultural investment. A side effect, however, was the emergence of many small processing factories, including cement and clothing plants, that somehow polluted the rural environment.

In the ongoing drive to revitalize the rural economy and life, the once-polluting township plants have gradually been replaced by pastoral landscapes restored or recreated with the help of eco-conscious designers and planners.

In Songze Village, dubbed the "root" of Shanghai where some of the city's "firsts" were discovered, including the first well and the first village, cracked and unkempt cement roads have been redesigned and rebuilt to become eco-friendly garden paths, and a 100-year-old rural house has been converted into a cafe with much of its original structure remaining intact.

"Although we are open on a trial basis, there are already many customers at weekends," said the cafe manager surnamed Liu. As I enjoyed a cup of coffee served with a piece of nougat, I saw she was busy receiving orders on her cellphone and discussing meal courses with a chef.

Unlike those villages near Huawei, Songze benefits not so much from subways as from Highway 318 that links Shanghai and the Xizang Autonomous Region. It so happens that Songze Village is located 31.8km from the city center, People's Square, a location lending itself to becoming a meeting point of highway drivers. But for a long time in the past, somehow undesirable rural infrastructure stood in the way.

Infrastructural improvement in Songze Village is not restricted to revamping roads or houses. A huge archeological forest park has just taken shape in the village, a meeting point of history and reality where visitors can walk or sit on the same soil where our ancestors lived 6,000 years ago.

The park is built on the basis of vast riverside forests, formerly inaccessible to pedestrians. Now newly built foot paths and wood pavilions have turned the dense forest into an open park.

An accessible countryside, made possible by rural infrastructural improvements based on environmentally conscious designs, is a boon for both city dwellers and rural residents. In the long run, a rural-urban continuum will help better define the path to sustainable growth.