| curpage: Home |
|
A mobile medical van, equipped with a full set of diagnostic equipment, provides services to villagers in remote mountain villages.
On May 20, at a thematic side session of the 78th World Health Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland, representatives from the Jingning Health Bureau shared China’s experience with the “Smart Mobile Hospital” initiative in mountainous areas, earning praise from World Health Organization officials.
Implementing a “fixed + mobile” public service model for mountainous regions, ensuring tangible happiness for the people—this is a vivid reflection of Lishui’s efforts to achieve a moderately prosperous society in all respects, in step with the broader province.
Over 25 years of determined progress, the people of Lishui have kept their mission close to heart, embedding “people first” into their actions. On the red soil of southwestern Zhejiang, they have strived tirelessly toward the goal of common prosperity and a better life. This achievement is both profound and heartwarming.
Breaking Barriers Through Reform: Advancing Urban-Rural Integration
Two decades ago, the per capita income of urban and rural residents in Lishui stood at just 7,582 yuan and 3,145 yuan respectively, with a vast gap between the two. Where lay the solution? Embracing the resilient spirit of its revolutionary roots, Lishui tackled the challenge through reform, driving integrated urban-rural development.
The relocation of farmers became the starting point for integration. Over the past 25 years, Lishui has rolled out a series of landmark initiatives—including “Mountain-to-Plain Relocation”, “Poverty Alleviation Through Resettlement”, “Rapid Relocation and Disaster Mitigation”, “Aggregated Resettlement for Prosperity”, and “Cross-Mountain Coordination for Prosperous Resettlement”—enabling nearly 600,000 residents from remote highlands and geologically hazardous zones to relocate to modern urban communities and embark on new lives. Through these efforts, Lishui has thoroughly implemented a dual strategy of “internal clustering and external migration”, gradually carving out a new model of urban-rural integration in mountainous regions, where cities propel rural progress, industries boost agriculture, and urban and rural development harmonize.
Yunhe County pioneered the “Small County, Big City” strategy, gathering scattered mountain households into new urban zones and fostering industries like piecework processing and edible mushroom cultivation. Resettled residents found jobs close to home, with average annual incomes surging from under 3,000 yuan to 38,000 yuan—a dramatic transformation from “mountain dwellers” to “urban citizens”.
While the smoke from resettled farmers' kitchens began to rise in new communities, the old houses of Songyang County were also given a new lease on life. Over 600 vacant ancestral homes were revitalized through renovation and adaptive reuse, repurposed into guesthouses, artists’ studios, and other ventures. Today, the county boasts 456 homestays generating more than 150 million yuan in annual revenue. Once-silent houses, where “echoes could be heard”, now hum with the laughter of tourists.
“Before, stuck in the mountains, we barely earned anything. But in the city, job opportunities abound. Now, there’s hardly any difference between urban and rural life,” said Mr. Ye, a resident of Yunhe’s Puguangsi neighborhood, with a smile. A former worker at a wooden toy factory, he has since returned to the countryside to farm, raise fish, and operate an agritourism business—embodying the fluidity of modern rural-urban livelihoods.
From mountains to cities and back again, reforms have unlocked the potential of natural resources, turning greenery into gold. As China’s first pilot zone for realizing ecological product value, Lishui has converted its environmental advantages into engines of prosperity. In Qingtian, a 7,000-mu demonstration base for the “rice-fish coculture system” has boosted farmers’ incomes by nearly 2,000 yuan per mu. In Qingyuan, the “forest-mushroom symbiotic system” has driven the edible fungi industry’s total output value to 5.8 billion yuan, with practitioners averaging over 30,000 yuan annually.
Over the past 25 years, Lishui has emerged as a national trailblazer in multiple reforms: the first central bank-approved rural financial reform pilot, a national hub for inclusive finance in rural revitalization, a pioneer in rural collective property rights reform, a leader in integrated basic public services for mountainous areas, and one of China’s first poverty alleviation reform pilot zones. Through systematic and comprehensive reforms, Lishui has established a new development paradigm where urban and rural areas share resources, complement each other’s strengths, and progress in tandem—attracting a growing influx of entrepreneurs and residents to the countryside.
The “Common Prosperity Partners” initiative, launched just last June, has already attracted 304 partners, facilitated 255 projects, and secured investments totaling 1.621 billion yuan. It has enabled over 100 villages to welcome social investment for the first time—a testament to how Lishui’s reforms continue to break new ground.
Strengthening Industrial Foundations to Fuel Vitality
Over the past 25 years, Lishui has grounded its efforts in the realities of its mountainous terrain, focusing on increasing prosperity and income for its residents. It has established a sustainable income growth mechanism oriented toward common prosperity, implementing dual initiatives to boost both village-level collective economies and farmers’ incomes, with a dedicated focus on narrowing income disparities.
In 2024, Lishui ranked first in Zhejiang Province in growth rates across six key income metrics: overall resident income, urban resident income, rural resident income, low-income rural household income, total village collective income, and operational income. The urban-rural income gap narrowed to a ratio of 1.87.
The foundation of prosperity lies in industry. Over the past quarter-century, Lishui has emerged as the “cradle” of rural e-commerce development in China, giving rise to nationally renowned models such as the “Suichang Model”, “Beishan Model” and “Lishui Experience”, setting benchmarks for rural e-commerce and revitalization nationwide. In 2024, the city’s online retail sales reached 78.7 billion yuan, with agricultural product e-commerce sales exceeding 10 billion yuan.
During this period, Lishui’s “Common Prosperity Workshops” have flourished, becoming a powerful driver of rural revitalization. For example, Longquan’s “Dendrobium Blossom” Workshop integrates “village collective dividends + land transfers from villagers + corporate cultural tourism promotion”, generating an annual output value of over 52 million yuan and increasing collective village income by 150,000 yuan. Suichang’s Bamboo Leaf Workshop leverages 300,000 acres of wild bamboo resources, achieving an annual industrial chain output of 240 million yuan and benefiting more than 3,800 residents with an average per capita income increase of 7,600 yuan.
Combined with rural e-commerce, Lishui has established 131 “Lishui Mountain Broadcast” Common Prosperity Workshops, creating jobs for over 5,000 people and generating more than 1.6 billion yuan in online retail sales.
Lishui has prioritized the development of high-quality agricultural value chains to propel industrial upgrading and farmer income growth. Jingning She Autonomous County’s Dongtang Village became China’s first “Alibaba Fresh Highlands Vegetable Village”, boosting income for 500 households by 1,200 yuan per mu and achieving sales exceeding 5 million yuan. The edible mushroom industry, accounting for one-third of Longquan’s agricultural output, has become one of Zhejiang’s “local specialty” chains with an annual value exceeding 1 billion yuan. Meanwhile, Songyang’s tea industry chain has surpassed 10 billion yuan in output, increasing the average income of 100,000 tea farmers by 27,000 yuan per capita. Currently, the city’s agricultural value chains employ 505,100 people, with an average annual income of 36,600 yuan.
Jinyun Baked Cake was recognized as one of the “Top 10 Specialty Products for Rural Prosperity” at the inaugural National Rural Revitalization Brand Festival. Last year, the industry’s output reached 3.89 billion yuan, supporting over 25,000 jobs and lifting more than 50,000 people out of poverty.
Liandu's Ancient Weir Painting Village, renowned for its art, has turned “Lishui Barbizon” into a cultural brand. Nearly 300 art schools have established creative bases there, attracting over 150,000 sketching tourists annually. The fusion of art and industry has created a shared prosperity space, with total industrial output nearing 1.7 billion yuan.
By tapping into endogenous momentum through traditional industry upgrades, Lishui has pioneered diverse pathways for industrial self-reinforcement.
Over the past 25 years, per capita incomes for urban and rural residents in Lishui have surged from 7,582 yuan and 3,145 yuan to 61,629 yuan and 33,000 yuan, growing by 7.1-fold and 9.5-fold, respectively—both now ranking among the top 40 nationally. Lishui has shed its label as an underdeveloped region, eradicated absolute poverty historically, and achieved a comprehensively well-off society in step with the entire province.
Pursuing Common Prosperity Through Equitable Public Services
Over the past 25 years, Lishui has made steadfast progress in its quest to deliver high-quality, accessible public services for all.
Focusing on eight key areas—childcare, education, healthcare, employment, culture, sports, elderly care, and disability support—the city has pioneered integrated public service reforms tailored to mountainous regions. These efforts have brought convenient services to nearly 400,000 residents in remote, hard-to-reach communities.
Lishui introduced China’s first universal commercial health supplement insurance, “Zhe-Li Insurance”, and has been recognized three times as a “National Model City for Healthy Urban Development”. Its innovative “Zhe-Li Rural Good Doctor” digital platform provides precise health monitoring and remote consultations for villagers in isolated areas.
As of May this year, the city’s fleet of 64 “Smart Mobile Hospital” vehicles had made 40,300 rounds, covering 1.76 million kilometers to deliver care to 1.77 million patients, with nearly 27.8 million yuan in online medical insurance settlements.
Another groundbreaking initiative is Lishui’s “Mobile Supply and Sales Prosperity Vehicles” model. A fleet of 203 “Zhe-Li Supply” and “Zhe-Li Sales” trucks now reaches 90% of remote villages, creating a seamless “collection-processing-sales” chain for agricultural products. The program has served 2.528 million attendances, boosting household incomes by an average of 28,000 yuan while solving the dual challenges of getting farm goods to market and delivering manufactured goods to the countryside.
Today, Lishui has established a precision service network combining fixed and mobile resources, with 1,480 “Mobile Prosperity Vehicles” providing year-round coverage to every administrative village and exceeding 30 million annual service instances.
Today’s Lishui has seen its urban and rural residents’ incomes rise to the top among key cities in China’s revolutionary base areas. The growth rate of farmers’ incomes has ranked first in the province for 16 consecutive years, while the income growth of low-income rural households has led the province for nine straight years. The region’s comprehensive strength now stands at the forefront of revolutionary base area cities nationwide.
Where the Ou River’s tides surge, seven world-class heritage sites, the “National Photography City” title, cultural brands like the “Village Evening” continue to showcase the spiritual richness of Lishui’s people through cultural nourishment. The achievement of being consecutively rated as a provincial “Safe City” for 20 years and becoming a national model city for the construction of a Safe China demonstrates Lishui’s solid efforts in creating a better life...
As the instruction of “the prosperous helping those behind” transforms into the running footsteps of countless people, the dream of common prosperity is becoming reality, generating tremendous momentum for charging toward the future.