What is the Development of Unique Towns

Time:  Nov 25.2021    |    Source:  JJTZ

1. Origin of Unique Town
Unique towns, first began in Zhejiang, was later developed rapidly throughout the country. However, it is in fact not original in Zhejiang. Beijing, Tianjin, Heilongjiang, Yunnan, Nanchang and other places have also proposed to build unique towns and are continuously cultivating them.

The national development and Reform Commission organized a special press conference on unique towns. During the press conference, the director of unique Towns in Zhejiang and Guizhou talked about their relevant experience. Zhejiang and Guizhou are regarded as typical areas for the development of unique towns. With the affirmation and promotion of the Central Committee, unique towns have been rapidly promoted in many places.

Up until now, there is no clear concept definition of unique towns, but according to the notice of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, and National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Finance on developing unique towns, unique towns are suggested to have distinctive characteristics, industrial development, green ecology, beauty and livability.

In Zhejiang, unique towns are not "towns" in administrative divisions, nor "zones" in industrial parks and scenic spots. Instead, according to the concept of “innovative, coordinated, green, open and common development”, unique towns is combined with its own characteristics. These towns identify the industrial positioning, make scientific planning, explore industrial characteristics, cultural heritage and ecological endowment, and form a major functional platform for the combination of "industry, city, people and culture". Requiring the planning space to be concentrated and connected, the planning area to be controlled at about 3 km2, the construction area to be controlled at about 1 km2, and the construction area should not exceed 50% of the planning area.

The first batch of unique towns - the hometown of pen making, Fenshui Town, Tonglu County, Hangzhou.

Due to vast territory and different economic backgrounds, unique towns has different models and definition methods in different provinces and places. In August this year, the central government requires all provinces to introduce the first batch of recommended list of unique towns, with a total of 159 places in 32 provinces. Under the help from local recommendations and expert review, the first batch of 127 towns with various Chinese characteristics were jointly identified by the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Finance.

2. Central and Local Policies Promote Development
A. Central Committee
The Opinions on Promoting the Construction of New Urbanization proposes to accelerate the development of unique towns and develop towns with characteristic advantages, such as leisure tourism, business logistics, IT industry, advanced manufacturing, folk culture inheritance, science and technology education.

The Outline of the Thirteenth Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development proposes to accelerate the development of small and medium-sized cities, as well as unique towns, and develop charming small towns with distinctive characteristics, industry & city integration, according to local conditions.

The Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Finance on Carrying out the Cultivation of unique towns proposes that, by 2020, about 1000 distinctive and dynamic unique towns should be cultivated, such as leisure tourism, business logistics, modern manufacturing, education, science and technology, traditional culture, beauty and livability. It accounts for about 5% of the country's current scale of towns.

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