Tourism-led Commodification of Place and Rural Transformation Development: A Case Study of Xixinan Village, Huangshan, China

Rural commodification with rural transformation development is a potential research agenda for rural geography. Based on semi-structured interviews in five times fieldwork in Xixinan Village, Huangshan, China, this article examines how the township government as an actor with entrepreneurialism promotes the commodification of place in rural areas and its impact on rural transformation development. It was found that the township government has drawn economic returns from different subjects of tourism entrepreneurs, tourists, and lifestyle immigrants by the efforts of commodifying real estate, creative tourism experience, and nature. Rural transformation development is accompanied by rural commodification, showing rural gentrification, expansion of employment opportunities for women, and the readjustment of the social structure of the family in the demographic structure. Rural tourism and rural creative industries have developed, complementing the single agricultural structure, constituting a mutual intersection and integration among these three industries. Regarding social and cultural values, rural commodification promoted the awareness of place in protecting ancient buildings and indigenous culture, but it also brought a sense of deprivation for community and contested rurality among different groups. The development state of rural transformation is constantly changing, and the new challenges arising from it to the rural revitalization of China, in this case, are also identified. The contribution of this article is to expand the analytical dimension of the commodification of place in rural areas and examine the state entrepreneurism associated with it. It also contributes to improving the understanding of the current development state of rural transformation in China.

Innovative Exploration of Township Government in constructing a New System of Rural governance (Based on the Survey Report of the Squatting Research in Hengli Town, Dongguan city, Guangdong Province, China)

Township governance is the foundation of national governance, related to the vital interests of ordinary people, affecting the stability and development of the country. At present, China’s economic growth are entering adjustment after transformation, the development and changes of the economic foundation needs a new concept of social governance, grassroots governance must focus on the new era of new requirements, from a strategic height to grasp the law of development of the township governance, governance from the Angle of practice innovation, promote social governance system construction needs to insist on the guidance, this article through to the horizontal drain in the town of Dongguan city, Guangdong province in grass-roots community diversity co-govermnet everybody is responsible for building, everyone is responsible for all the analysis of the community of social governance of exploration and practice, put forward to further improve township government countermeasures for establishing a new system of rural governance. In Hengli Town, positive measures are explored to improve the township level administrative management system and promote collaborative innovation of rural social governance in township governance capacity, providing reference for building a new system of rural governance and exploring the township level administrative management system.

No Money, No Representation: A Case Study of Zeguo Town in China

Authoritarian regimes rely on fiscal resources to build patronage networks. And so it is with China. Budget making is usually dominated by government leaders. However, some local governments in recent years have invited ordinary people to review budgets and even to determine parts of budgets. Why would local leaders make themselves accountable to their constituencies in an authoritarian setting? Why would local governments in China tie their own hands? Using detailed description of a township government, this article argues that fiscal affluence based on land is an important factor for local governments in launching fiscal reform. Richer areas have become more fiscally accountable by opening up new discussion and encouraging citizen participation.

Debris Flow Hazards and its Mitigation Works in Xianbuleng Gully, Jinchuan County, Sichuan Province, China

This paper presented a case analysis of debris flow hazards and its mitigation works. The Xianbuleng Gully which is located in Jinchuan County, Sichuan Province was selected as study area. This gully is an old debris flow gully which once burst out many debris flow disasters in history. If debris flows occur again in this gully, the township government, the center school and 13 village houses nearly 300 persons on the alluvial fan will be exposed to great risk.The environment settings and the hazard characteristics of the Xianbuleng debris flow were introduced first in this paper. Then, mitigation works especially the drainage canal under the optimal hydraulic condition were planned and designed in the gully for decreasing the debris flow hazards.