In this article, we reviewed the process of rural development from 1949 to 2019. Implementing the rural revitalization strategy is essential for the declared prioritization of agricultural and rural development, achieving the overarching goal of agricultural and rural modernization, and establishing and improving the mechanism and policy framework of integrated urban and rural development. Rural development in China can be divided into five stages. The first stage involved urban-rural dual structure development with people's cooperatives as the primary agents. The second comprised a household contract responsibility system, and is characterized by a small-scale peasant economy. The third involved coordinating urban and rural development with a "city re-feeding rural areas" policy. The fourth was urban-rural integrated development oriented by rural reconstruction. Finally, the fifth stage is rural revitalization guided by balanced urban and rural development. This study also described and analyzed the evolution process of six revitalization themes since 1949, as well as tracing the journey of the deepening research into the themes. The six themes are: differentiation of the agents, industrial evolution, environmental improvement, cultural reconstruction, rural governance, and rural planning. Finally, this study focused on the recent rural revitalization to address strategic needs and five upcoming areas of research. These research areas include interdisciplinary integrated research of theory and practice, urban-rural integration, integrated development of rural industry and improvement of quality and efficiency, integrated development of rural production, living, and ecological space, and cross-regional rural cooperation and linkage. Future research trends were also discussed.
Human capital is the key factor for building farmers' livelihoods and examining farming households' livelihood strategy is important for promoting livelihood transformation and rural revitalization. Taking Liangshan Prefecture of Sichuan Province in the mountainous area of southwest China as the case study area, this study measured the impact of human capital on farming households' livelihood strategy by using the survey data from 508 farmers in 2018 and applying regression models. The results show: human capital is an important factor of farmers' livelihood choices in mountainous areas, and different types of human capital have different impacts on farmers' livelihood strategy, with clear spatial differences. Education level and health condition have positive effects on off-farm livelihood strategy, with most significant impacts in the high mountain villages, followed by the semi-mountain villages, and health condition has no significant effect on farmers' livelihood choices in the river valley villages. Off-farm skill training has a significant positive impact on off-farm livelihood strategy choices, with most significant impact in the high mountain villages, followed by the semi-mountain and river valley villages; agricultural skill training has a negative impact on off-farm livelihood strategy choices, with most significant impact in the river valley villages, followed by the semi-mountain villages, and agricultural skill training has no significant effect on farmers' livelihood choices in the high mountain villages. Young adult labor force tend to choose off-farm livelihood, and the aging problem of farming population is getting worse, with the high mountain villages being the most significant, followed by the semi-mountain villages, and the river valley villages being less obvious. Income gaps between farm and off-farm livelihood types is the fundamental reason affecting farmers' livelihood choices, and poor rural public services and lack of development opportunity are important reasons that affect farmers' livelihood choices. Finally, based on the above conclusions, this article explored the dialectical relationship between human capitals, labor off-farm employment, and rural development and its policy implications.
With the continuous development of agricultural commercialization in China, traditional uncovered farmlands have been gradually replaced, the area of plastic tunnels in the suburbs of big cities expands rapidly, and the transformation of agricultural land use to "plastic tunnels" has become more common. Along with this development, farmers in the suburbs of big cities have gradually changed from the traditional "self-sufficient" farmers to the market-oriented "new professional farmers". However, so far there has been little research on the role of new professional farmers in the transformation of agricultural land use in the suburbs of big cities. In order to analyze the influence of "new professional farmers" on the transformation of agricultural land use, based on the questionnaire survey primary data of 291 farmers in eight districts of Nanjing City in 2018 and secondary data, this study constructed a Logistic regression model from the perspective of new professional farmer influences and studied the impact of new professional farmers on the transformation of plastic tunnels on a micro scale. The results show that: 1) Compared with other types of farmers, new professional farmers are the fundamental driving factor for the transformation of suburban farmland use and can significantly promote the transformation of suburban farmland use towards plastic tunnels. Holding all other variables constant, the possibility of plastic tunnels cultivation of migrant professional farmers is about 4.7 times that of other types of farmers. 2) Age of the new professional farmers, years of farming, and scale of operation are important factors affecting the transformation of plastic tunnels. The older the farmers are, the less likely they are to convert to plant cropping in plastic tunnels; the longer the number of years of farming, and the larger the scale of operation, the greater the possibility of converting to the use of plastic tunnels. 3) For all farmers who participated in the survey, sales proportion, annual net profit per unit of agriculture production, and terrain factors have a significant positive effect on the transformation of plastic tunnels.
In-depth research on rural land use change and settlement development is of great significance for exploring the optimization of regional rural system, promoting urban-rural integration, and rural sustainable development. This study took the Nianzhuang gully basin in Yan'an City of Shaanxi Province, China as an example. Based on software technologies such as ENVI and GIS and combining Landsat satellite images, the Markov chain model, and humanistic field survey, this study examined the land use change of typical villages in the loess hilly and gully region and its implications for regional rural transformation and development from the perspectives of change and transfer of land-use types, spatial change of construction land, and social responses. The results show that: 1) With the implementation of a series of ecological engineering measures, the ecological land cover of the Nianzhuang gully basin has been significantly improved. This is mainly represented by the conversion of a large number of slope farmland and dispersed ecological land into forest land, as a result of which the proportion of forest land area increased from 32.34% in 2009 to 50.88% in 2018. 2) Under the influence of the social and economic progress and the development of Yan'an New City, the construction land of the Nianzhuang gully basin has been expanding into the southeast and southwest of the basin. The area of construction land has increased by nearly 75% in the past 10 years. 3) Due to the leading role of human activities, the villages in the loess hilly and gully region are transforming towards ecological and intensive use of land. The results of this study can provide a new reference for an in-depth understanding of regional rural system structure and optimization in the loess hilly and gully region.
To reveal the spatial differentiation characteristics of rural multifunctionality in Chinese county areas and quantitatively identify the influencing factors of spatial differentiation of rural multifunctionality, this study comprehensively evaluated rural multifunctionality at the county level in China from 2000 to 2015 by constructing an evaluation index system, using entropy weight method, semi-variance function, and geodetector method. The main results are as follows: 1) The spatial distribution of rural multifunctionality was uneven. High-value regions of rural multifunctionality were concentrated in the plain areas and the eastern coasts of China. Low-value regions were concentrated on the plateaus and in the mountain regions. Rural multifunctionality presents a gradual upward temporal trend as a whole. 2) The contribution rate of economic development function and social security function to rural multifunctionality gradually increased, and the contribution rate of agricultural production function and ecological conservation function to rural multifunctionality gradually decreased. 3) From 2000 to 2015, the range and intensity of spatial auto-correlation of rural multifunctionality gradually decreased at the county level in China. Random factors became the driving forces of spatial differentiation of rural multifunctionality. 4) Economic development and fiscal revenue of counties were the main factors that affect the spatial differentiation of rural multifunctionality. The interaction of different influencing factors enhanced the spatial differentiation of rural multifunctionality. The degree of influence of social factors was gradually rising and the degree of influence of natural factors was gradually decreasing over time.
Under the background of urban-rural transformation and development, transformation of agricultural production has become an important entry point for the analysis of the change of rural human-environment relationship in China. Identifying the types of agricultural production transformation in traditional farming areas and key problems will provide a reference for regulating agricultural production policies and improving rural development strategies. This study started with dividing the types of agricultural production transformation in the Huang-Huai-Hai Plain (HHH), and then systematically analyzed the dilemmas faced by different agricultural production transformation types and solutions to the associated problems. The study found that: 1) The multi-scale analysis method combining "top-down" and "bottom-up" approaches is an effective means to analyze the differences in the transformation type of agricultural production. 2) From the perspective of spatial resilience, the types of agricultural production transformation in the HHH can be divided into traditional farming-oriented transformation type, modern market-oriented transformation type, and suburban leisure-oriented transformation type. 3) In the traditional farming-oriented transformation areas the imbalance of land use transition and rural labor force transformation, lack of core industrial support, and low actual urbanization rate are key issues that limit the orderly transformation of the rural areas. 4) The lagging land management system and inefficient organization of farmers in the modern market-oriented transformation areas are the problems that need to be solved at present. 5) Improving the market participation mode and reducing the capital risk of farmers in the suburban leisure-oriented transformation areas are the significant issues that must be considered. 6) In response to the different problems in the various types of agricultural production transformation areas, it is important to promote the implementation of the revitalization planning based on local conditions and scientific strategies.
China's rural revitalization strategy is a long-term strategic deployment for agricultural and rural modernization by 2050. Given the differences of villages and the divergence of their development trends, it is important to identify village types scientifically and clarify their development directions in order to make sound rural revitalization plans and take differential measures. The village scale is a basic scale for implementing rural revitalization. However, limited by the lack of micro-scale statistical data and basic information, it is urgent to build a scientific, simple, and usable methodological framework for identifying village types. This study integrated geographic data and rural land use data to construct a village type identification system. Then natural factors, revitalize potential, development situation, and resource endowment were examined in turn to identify village types of Zhangzi County, Shanxi Province. The main conclusions are as follows: 1) Natural factors limit the basic pattern and direction of change of villages, location determines the development potential and transformation capability, and both play a decisive role in the evolution and revitalization of villages. 2) From the perspective of farmers, whether the location efficiency of a village is compatible to farmers' production and living needs and livelihood style determines whether a change takes place in the location of residence of farmers, and this trend can be reflected by idle and abandoned homesteads. 3) The villages of Zhangzi County can be divided into five types, including urban-suburban integration, agglomeration for improvement, traditional agricultural, protection due to special characteristics, and relocation and merging types. Combining with different modes of rural revitalization, corresponding development paths are proposed accordingly to provide a theoretical basis and decision references for differentiated rural revitalization strategies.
China's agricultural development is facing the challenges of sustainable development, changing consumer demands, and globalization. More attention should be paid to the spatial patterns, territorial types, and optimization strategies of multiple agriculture functions. This study briefly reviewed the development of multifunctional agriculture and discussed the theoretical basis of the spatiotemporal differentiation of agriculture multifunctions, and studied the territorial types and optimization strategies of agriculture multifunctions at the county level in Jilin Province by using cluster analysis method and so on. The results demonstrate that: 1) Agriculture multifunctions have the characteristics of joint production and externality. Endowment of agricultural resources, socioeconomic development stages, and their interactions play key roles in the spatiotemporal differentiation of agriculture multifunctions. 2) The spatial differentiations of agriculture functions at the county level in Jilin Province present different characteristics— the high values of agricultural products supply function are mainly distributed in the Songhua River-Liao River Plain; the high values of economic development function are located in counties with strong featured agriculture; the high values of social security function are distributed in highly urbanized counties with high per capita agricultural output value; and the high values of ecological service function are located in counties that have a large proportion of forest, grassland, and water areas. 3) Agriculture multifunctions at the county level in Jilin Province can be divided into four types: agricultural products supply dominated, multiple functions balanced, non-ecological functions disadvantaged, and ecological service dominated. 4) Different territorial types of agriculture multifunctions have different combinations of multiple agriculture functions and development backgrounds, and targeted development strategies for them should be implemented.
Implementing the strategy of rural revitalization is an inevitable requirement for solving the main social conflicts in China in the new era, which is related to the success of the country's modernization. Rural revitalization is a comprehensive process of natural and human systems. To implement the strategy of rural revitalization, it is necessary to establish a scientific and sound planning system of rural revitalization in order to coordinate and optimize the allocation of urban and rural factor resources. Based on the system perspective of geography, this study analyzed the connotation of the "rural" concept and the basic characteristics of rural development. It summarized the basic features and main problems and then preliminarily constructed a framework of rural revitalization planning system. The results show that there are multiple attributes of rural system, which contains social and cultural, political and economic, and geographical space. It also has many functions such as production, living, ecological, and cultural. Rural revitalization is a comprehensive process combining rural resources utilization, economic and social development, and coupling of natural and human systems. Rural system is characterized by decentralization of factors and self-organization of development, spatial heterogeneity and diversity of types, dependence on regions and cities, and strong restriction of industrial development by natural factors. Rural revitalization planning is an integrated and coordinated process of allocation of rural spatial factor resources. Its essence is to promote equity-oriented planning and more emphasis should be placed on the participation process of planning. There are some main problems of rural planning. At present, China's rural planning has not yet formed a complete system. Rural planning lacks legal support and the development of rural planning technology and theory lags behind. The boundary and depth of rural revitalization planning have not been clearly understood. The guarantee mechanism for the implementation of plans needs improvement. Based on the above analysis, a "five-in-one" rural revitalization planning system is proposed, including the main planning system, institutional guarantee system, technical support system, multi-planning coordination system, and participation feedback system. This system can coordinate the allocation of rural factor resources more effectively, integrate into regional and urban development, form planning synergy, and activate development vitality. It will also be helpful for enhancing the authority, feasibility, and practicability of rural revitalization planning.
Taking administrative village as the research unit and starting from the five dimensions of rural settlement, land use, population, economy, and human settlement environment, this study firstly constructed an evaluation index system of rural development level. Then using spatial autocorrelation, hotspot analysis, and rank-size rule, we analyzed and evaluated the spatial pattern and scale hierarchy of rural development levels. The results are as follows: 1) The spatial differentiation of rural development level in Wuhan City's new urban districts is obvious, and rural development shows a significant spatial agglomeration characteristic at the administrative village level. The administrative villages with high level of rural development are concentrated in the junction of the southern part of Huanghua District and the eastern part of Dongxihu District, the eastern part of Hannan District, and the northern part of Jiangxia District. The administrative villages with average development level and below are widely distributed. 2) The scale of rural development in the new urban districts is in line with the rank-size rule. The development of high-level administrative villages are insufficient but the medium-low order administrative villages are widely developed, the rural scale spreads over a wide range, and the level of urbanization needs to be improved. 3) The hierarchical system of rural settlements in the new urban districts presents a pyramid structure, which is similar to the central place theory model based on market principle (K=3), and the level of the center is lower. Finally, according to the results of the study, policy recommendations for rural development were put forward.
Rural multifunctional values?in urban fringes are prominent at the current stage of urbanization in China. Therefore, it is urgent to delineate "production-living-ecological" space using the rural multifunction theory in order to carry out spatial reconstruction. This study developed a comprehensive method for delineating the "production-living-ecological" space in urban fringe based on rural multifunction evaluation, taking Tongshan District of Xuzhou City for empirical research. First, the spatial and temporal changes of rural multifunctions were evaluated from the aspects of production, living, and ecological functions. Second, suitability evaluation for "production-living-ecological" space was carried out at the grid scale, and then, the rural multifunctional "production-living-ecological" space suitability evaluation result was attained. Finally, the "production-living-ecological" space was delineated. The study revealed that: 1) With the overwhelming development of rural recreation and sightseeing agriculture in urban fringe, the application of rural multifunction theory to the reconstruction of multifunctional space can promote development transition. 2) Non-agricultural production function and living function are mainly distributed in the suburbs surrounding the main urban area, while agricultural production function is mainly distributed in the outer suburbs, and ecological function shows clear spatial heterogeneity. Agricultural, non-agricultural production, and living functions are improving, while ecological function is declining. 3) "Production-living-ecological" space delineation at county level needs multiscale combination, not only considering the multifunctional differences at the township scale, but also accounting for suitability at the vector or grid level. The proposed method of delineating "production-living-ecological" space based on rural multifunctional evaluation can provide a scientific basis for spatial planning.
It is of great practical significance to explore the regional differences in the structure efficiency of rural land use to guide the efficient use of rural land. At the same time, under the background of the strategy of rural revitalization, scientific and rational evaluation of the spatial and temporal allocation of rural land can provide land resources guarantee for the sustainable development of rural areas. Taking 31 provinces and cities in the mainland of China as the research object from 2009 to 2016, the spatial and temporal differentiation and influencing factors of rural land use structure efficiency were discussed by using Super-SBM model and geographical detector. The results show that: 1) The overall efficiency of China's rural land use structure in 2009-2016 was in the middle level and showed an upward trend year by year. 2) There was a significant spatial difference in the efficiency of input and output of rural land use in China. The input and output efficiency of rural land use in China showed a distribution pattern of high to low from the east to west, and the efficiency in the north area is higher than that in south area. 3) The influence of various factors on the structural efficiency of rural land use in China has temporal volatility and spatial heterogeneity. The influence of rural conditions was significantly higher than that of urban-rural relationship. And the impacts of regional economy and industrial structure on the structural efficiency of rural land use have been significantly improved. 4) In the process of rural land use in China, all types of land use are shown as input redundancy, and the proportion of economically available land among regions is obviously different, the eastern area needs to adjust ecological space such as garden land and forest land, the middle and western regions need to consider the whole land use structure optimization, while northeast area needs to focus on the intensive and efficient use of village land.
Rural vitalization is closely related to the driving force of urban development and metropolitan areas are best positioned to promote rural vitalization because they are generally in a relatively advanced stage of rural development. Comparing the status of rural development and its influencing factors in major cities can provide a reference for optimizing the strategy of rural revitalization in metropolitan areas and provide some experiences for rural development in less developed areas. This study selected 14 national central cities and potential central cities, constructed an indicator system from three aspects—strong agriculture, beautiful rural environment, and wealthy rural residents, and adopted an improved entropy weight method and Pearson correlation analysis to compare and analyze the rural development level and its influencing factors in China's metropolises since 2000, and then explored its policy implications for implementing the rural vitalization strategy. The study result shows that the rural development level of the 14 metropolises is very different. Southern cities generally have higher rural development level than that of northern cities and rural development level of national central cities is not necessarily higher than that of potential central cities. Different rural development levels mean that a higher urban development stage does not necessarily lead to a real urban-rural integration, highlighting the inherent necessity of timely and effective government intervention in urban and rural development and the implementation of rural revitalization strategy. Rural development level is closely related to the stage of economic development, local fiscal capacity, diversification of households' livelihoods, agricultural structure, and other factors. Therefore, rural vitalization is a gradual process of advancement. It is necessary to establish scientific goals and measures of rural revitalization on the basis of local development foundations. Additionally, rural revitalization should be based on and move beyond agriculture. On the one hand, it should guarantee the development rights of major grain producing areas and traditional agricultural areas through transfer payments. On the other hand, it should continuously expand the value-added space of rural industries. In particular, rural revitalization needs to break the current segmentation of urban and rural governance and to truly give priority to agricultural and rural developments in concepts, plans, policies, and regulations.
Traditional villages carry the genes and blood of the Chinese nation. Retaining this "nostalgia" in the process of rural transformation and development is very important. From the perspective of landscape gene repair and culture gene repair and taking Zhangguying and Huangdu villages as the research objects, this study explored the changing path and spatial characteristics of the transformation and development of human settlement environment under the self-organization and hetero-organization modes, and constructed a transformation and development model of human settlement environment. The research shows that: 1) Under the self-organization mode, the transformation mechanism of traditional village human settlement environment system is flexible and has high long-term stability. The human settlement environment system under the hetero-organization mode has strong integrity and short-term stability, but lacks certain effectiveness. 2) The leading factor of self-organizing development comes from the endogenous forces dominated by village residents, who have strong ability of innovation and adaptation. Most of the hetero-organizing developments are dominated by external forces, with weak endogenous force and low ability of innovation and adaptation. 3) Under the guidance of self-organization model, the development logic of traditional villages' human settlement environment transformation mostly takes cultural gene repair as the first step, and landscape gene repair as the second step. The development logic of hetero-organization mode is in contrary to self-organization, showing a ladder-like development path. 4) Self-organizing model is easy to produce and preserve cultural genes, and stable cultural genes are also beneficial to maintaining the stable development of self-organizing system. However, the impact of hetero-organization mode is mostly concentrated on the landscape of the villages. It is difficult to form an independent and effective operation mechanism and development concept within the villages, and the ability to repair cultural genes is weak. 5) Self-organization mode is easy to form effective development mechanism and stable cultural atmosphere. The concept of "double-repairs" is easier to implement in the transformation of traditional village human settlement environment. Because of the lack of endogenous motivation, it is difficult to form an independent and effective operation mechanism and development concept within the village with the hetero-organization mode. It is more difficult to implement the concept of "double-repairs". 6) Self-organization mode can continue steadily in the future development of traditional villages. Although hetero-organization mode can continue in a short time, eventually it will be replaced by the self-organization mode with the transformation of internal and external subjects.
There is a huge gulf between the dilemmas of rural development and the strategic goals of rural vitalization in China. This study examined the trend and characteristics of land reform and rural development in China since 1949, and then explored the interactive mechanisms based on the functional system of rural land reform. Alternative pathways and typical models of rural vitalization promoted by rural land reform were also discussed. The main conclusions are as follows: 1) Rural land reform is the breakthrough point to address the current dilemmas of rural development and promote rural vitalization. In essence, it is the readjustment of production relations in the new era to adapt to the development of urban-rural productive forces, both of which are urgent, integrative, and challenging. Since 1949, changes in rural land institution and rural development have been generally coupled and linked. 2) In the new era, rural land reform has multifunctional values. It promotes rural reconstruction and rural multifunctional development by reinforcing weak links and gives play to the multiplier effect of institutional linkages, urban-rural integration, and economy transformation, to promote rural vitalization and drive the optimization of urban-rural territorial system functions. 3) Along the path of integrating elements, restructuring structures, and optimizing functions, rural land reform promotes the change of regional functions and rural vitalization according to local conditions. 4) In the future, it is necessary to give full play to the stimulating effect of rural land reform, pay attention to potential policy frictions, deepen the positive feedback of rural vitalization on rural land reform, and carefully consider the coordination of rural land reform measures and rural development.
For most regions in rural China, poverty is an important factor restricting rural development. In order to reduce excessive dependence on agriculture and single production function, rural multifunctionality is receiving increasing more attention. Multifunctional rural development is to a great extent conducive to reducing the incidence of poverty and improving the ability of rural communities and families to face the pressure of survival. Under the background of rural revitalization in China, this study used field investigation and semistructured interview results to analyze the characteristics of change and driving factors of rural development in poor villages from the perspective of multifunctionality. Based on the development model of Zahan Village, we further explored alternative pathways for vitalizing poor rural villages. The results show that: 1) Under the influence of "policy opportunity geography", Zahan Village has experienced a transition from a vulnerable poor rural village to a village with diversified functions. 2) The coordinated development of agricultural production, social security, ecological conservation, and cultural heritage protection in rural areas has positive implications for improving the level of rural socioeconomic development and enhancing rural resilience. 3) Factors driving rural multifunctional transition include policy support, market demand, natural environment, capital and technology, stakeholders, and cultural traits. 4) In view of the constraints of rural development in poor villages, it is proposed to provide external support for rural vitalization from the macro level, promote synergistic interaction from the meso level, stimulate endogenous forces from the micro level, and achieve rural vitalization through overall planning and various breakthroughs. Finally, based on the multifunctional rural development theory, the dilemmas and prospect of rural vitalization and development were discussed.
