Beautify countryside nationwide, Xi orders

President Xi Jinping has demanded nationwide efforts to emulate the transformation of East China's Zhejiang province in building a beautiful countryside with a pleasant living environment to increase the sense of gain and happiness for all rural residents.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, said Zhejiang has made constant efforts during the past 15 years to improve the rural living environment, creating "tens of thousands of beautiful villages".

"As I have said on many occasions, developed and underdeveloped areas should all get involved in improving the rural environment, though the standards may vary," Xi said.

During the implementation of a three-year campaign to improve the rural living environment and the rural vitalization strategy, the country must popularize Zhejiang's experience and practices, he said, adding that measures should be targeted and adjusted to local conditions.

Zhejiang, where Xi's "Two Mountains" theory－in which clear waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets comparable to the gold and silver mountains of legend－was originated, has taken the lead in rural vitalization since 2003, when it implemented a project to overhaul the living environment of villages.

At the end of last year, 97 percent of villages in the province had been overhauled.

"Through implementing the rural vitalization strategy, the longtime imbalance in the development of China's urban and rural areas and the insufficiency in China's rural area development will be addressed," said Huang Zuhui, dean of the China Academy for Rural Development at Zhejiang University.

He said the strategy must be pushed ahead under the framework of urban-rural composition and integration.

The Zhejiang CPC provincial committee and Zhejiang provincial government on Monday issued an action plan to fully implement its rural vitalization strategy to realize countryside modernization before 2022.

According to the plan, by 2020, Zhejiang will form basic systematic and policy frameworks to achieve "substantial progress" in rural vitalization, building up a well-off society in its rural areas.

By 2022, per capita rural disposal income in Zhejiang will rise by 10,000 yuan ($1,585) to reach over 35,000 yuan. It also will reconstruct and overhaul over 10,000 kilometers of rural roads during that period.

Long-term goals include realizing its rural vitalization goals on a whole by 2035, with farmers realizing common prosperity and modernization; and all goals for "common prosperity and modernization" will be realized "at high standards" by 2050.

A rural vitalization college was launched on Saturday in Xianju county. Pritzker Prize winner Wang Shu, dean of the architecture department at China Academy of Art in Hangzhou, accepted the appointment to head the college.

Xinhua contributed to this story.