Shanghai is a cosmopolitan metropolis, but it is not defined solely by the hustle and bustle of its central urban areas. It also boasts the green backdrop and unique charm of its vast rural landscapes.
Xinyuan village in Fengjing town, Jinshan district, is finding new vitality as it continues to deepen the integration of local renovation with Shanghai-style Jiangnan (the southern regions of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River) traditions.
Launched by the city in 2024, the Shanghai-style Jiangnan initiative was proposed based on its regional characteristics and cultural heritage and serves as a landmark initiative for Shanghai's rural vitalization.
Hu Shuhua, Party secretary of Fengjing town, noted at a news briefing on Oct 26 that the goal of the Shanghai-style Jiangnan initiative is not merely to create scenic landscapes, nor is it to transform the countryside into urban parks or popular tourist attractions.
Rather, it involves the comprehensive protection, systematic restoration, and revitalized utilization of the rural landscape, including its waterways, settlement patterns, architectural styles, and historical and cultural heritage. These efforts combine to maintain the most authentic, rustic, Shanghai-style Jiangnan villages and to make them better seen, experienced and passed down, she added.
In the town, the Jiangnan Xinyuan Unit is one of the city's first batch of pilot units under the initiative. Located on the border between Shanghai municipality and Zhejiang province, the village preserves one of the city's few remaining polder layouts dating back to the late Tang Dynasty (618-907).
From an aerial view, the village's waterway network crisscrosses like a chessboard, with residential buildings arranged in a circular pattern along the sides. The waterways and homesteads are interwoven, forming a unique layout where "water surrounds the fields, fields surround the village, and the village rests by the water". This layout naturally forms an effective flood drainage system that has safeguarded residents' daily lives for thousands of years.
"The dynamic landscape of the polders is one of the village's Jiangnan icons," said Shen Weifeng, Party secretary of Xinyuan village. "Preserving this harmonious system between humans and nature is essential in building our pilot Shanghai-style Jiangnan Xinyuan Unit."
The village, town, district, and residents have worked together over the past two years on river cleanup, environmental conservation, preserving local traditions, home repairs, building renovations, and improved elder-care services.
While the neighborhood's old bridges, buildings and houses remain well-kept, the village has carefully introduced new ecological landscapes and tailor-made business models.
"The essence of the Shanghai-style Jiangnan landscape lies in authentic lifestyles and sustainable development," Shen said. "Cookiecutter commercialized renovations, however, will erode the water town's unique features."
The Xinyuan pilot unit is gradually moving into routine operations. Hu stressed that their commitment to safeguarding the ecological foundation and the original mission of benefitting the villagers remains unchanged.
Looking ahead, the team is set to ramp up ecological, cultural, industrial, and governance efforts in tandem, aiming to keep the village's millennia-old landscape vibrant and sustainable.
