Rural Development

In less than fifty years, China has risen from being the poorest country in the world to becoming a top economic power. Yet 30 million Chinese still live below the poverty line of just two dollars a day. Living and working conditions in rural and urban areas differ dramatically. Increasing urbanization is leading to rural exodus. In many villages, hardly any people of working age remain – only the old and the young are left behind. 60 million children have to grow up without their parents because they work in the cities. The village as a place to live lacks attractiveness.

With its representative office in Shandong, the Hanns Seidel Foundation is making an important contribution to reducing poverty, increasing equal opportunities and promoting social justice in China's rural areas. In doing so, we always keep the three levels of people, politics and administration, and science in mind. In the following, we would like to present you with concrete examples of our work at these three levels:

The Nanzhanglou pilot project

The oldest of our five current pilot projects – the village of Nanzhanglou in Shandong Province – began 30 years ago. For decades, our experts have provided their know-how and advised the local administration on a comprehensive village renewal and land consolidation. This was the first time that a bottom-up approach had been pursued in rural China, one that enables citizen participation and focuses on citizens themselves as experts on their living space.

Today, the per capita income of Nanzhanglou's farmers is only slightly below the average income of the surrounding cities. In addition, new jobs have been created for farmers who could no longer work in agriculture. Contrary to the trend in rural China, Nanzhanglou's population has increased and young people have returned from the cities. The community is not in debt and is currently even providing jobs for the surrounding area. The project has succeeded in bringing about sustainable change and revitalizing the village.

Delegation trips by Chinese officials to Germany

In cooperation with various stakeholders from politics and administration, we organize delegation and study trips to Germany. The delegation members are accompanied by representatives of the Bavarian Office for Rural Development. In discussions with experts and village mayors, the participants experience Bavarian success stories of rural development at first hand and see what successful rural development can look like. On site, the participants learn that people in rural areas of Bavaria can live just as well as people in the cities and that the future of the village is largely defined by the village community itself. At the same time, we show them where challenges continue to exist.

Our Chinese partners bring back numerous new impressions, suggestions and insights from their trips with their delegations, which they incorporate into their daily work at the local, regional and national level, thus initiating transformation processes.

Scientific discourse at the Summer School

In cooperation with the Renmin University of China in Beijing and the Technical University of Munich, we offer an annual summer school. Here, young scientists are given the opportunity to learn about the German approach to the development of rural areas and, more specifically, to land management. The results ultimately flow into the Chinese scientific discourse and provide a basis for further structural change processes.