Huzhou in Zhejiang province has expanded its rural development efforts from environmental improvement to coordinated village development, business operations, and youth entrepreneurship.

In Xinqi village, Deqing county, UMR, a digital research project incubated by a Tsinghua University research institute, recently established a presence in the village. Its project head said the rural setting could inspire ideas, while visitor traffic offered opportunities for data collection and testing. Idle rural homes and a former primary school have also been repurposed for dining, leisure, and farming experiences.

Huzhou began improving rural roads, waste collection, waterways, and village greenery in 2001. Zhejiang launched the Green Rural Revival Program in 2003, and Huzhou and Zhejiang University began cooperating on rural development in 2006.

The lively Youfeng Youth Market in Chendugang village, Huzhou, Zhejiang province. [Photo/Tide News]

Huzhou proposed developing "Beautiful Villages" in 2008. In 2015, the national standard Guidelines for the Construction of Beautiful Villages was issued.

The city has promoted coordinated development among neighboring villages since 2020 and has now established 49 city-level village clusters covering 225 administrative villages.

Since 2019, Huzhou has attracted nearly 400,000 young people to its rural areas for employment and entrepreneurship. China's first local regulation dedicated to youth development in rural areas took effect in Huzhou on May 20.

Currently, 544 administrative villages have introduced professional rural business operations, with 140 management teams employing more than 1,000 people.