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Population Mobility, Urban Planning and Management in China pp 275–290Cite as

A New Pathway to Urbanization in China? The Land Trading Policy and Practice in Yandu Xincun, Xianghe County, Hebei Province

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Abstract

This chapter examines a new land policy known as Zengjian Guagou (i.e., “bundling up addition with reduction” – abbreviated as BAR hereafter) which has been gradually developed and implemented since the year 2000. The main research questions include how is BAR implemented? Who are the main stakeholders associated with its implementation? And what is the impact of BAR on the in-situ urbanization in terms of employment and lifestyle change? These questions were addressed by analyzing Yandu Xincun, a village in Hebei Province as a case study. Data were collected through field observations and key informant interviews. Findings demonstrated that the policy contributed to significant urban expansion at the expense of arable land quality; its implementation resulted in both positive and negative changes to the built environment and residents’ lifestyle; BAR promoted rural non-agricultural employment and led to a coming-back flow of emigrant workers.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    These other goals include protection of peasants’ interest in land rights change, improvement of rural living conditions, and promotion of integrated rural–urban development (MLR 2008).

  2. 2.

    An attempt was made to clarify how the revenue was defined. We were told that this would be the profit from the project mainly derived from the sales of the apartments.

  3. 3.

    A recent article in Nature warned that despite China was successful in maintaining its ‘red line’ amount of arable land, ‘[s]ome 3 million hectares of high-quality arable land and some 1 million hectares of paddy land have been built on or converted to urban use in just over a decade. More than 3 million hectares have been contaminated with pollution.’ (Kong 2014: 7)

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, 3010, Australia

    Sun Sheng Han

  2. Beijing Urban Development Institute, No. 45 Fuxingmengnei Avenue, 100801, Beijing, China

    Qianli Wei

Authors
  1. Sun Sheng Han
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  2. Qianli Wei
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sun Sheng Han .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Guizhou University of Finance and Economics, Guiyang City, China

    Tai-Chee Wong

  2. University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia

    Sun Sheng Han

  3. Guizhou University of Finance and Economics, Guiyang City, China

    Hongmei Zhang

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Han, S.S., Wei, Q. (2015). A New Pathway to Urbanization in China? The Land Trading Policy and Practice in Yandu Xincun, Xianghe County, Hebei Province. In: Wong, TC., Han, S., Zhang, H. (eds) Population Mobility, Urban Planning and Management in China. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15257-8_16

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