JINAN, June 26 (Xinhua) -- In east China's Shandong Province, the borders between three adjacent administrative villages in Bianlin Township of Dezhou City are fading fast. It's not a matter of redrawing lines on a map, but a transformation in daily life, as production and commerce now flow seamlessly across once-rigid divides.
A few years ago, the three villages operated in isolation, each fending for itself. Xiyujia and Guozhuang had strengths in vegetable farming but were short of arable land, while Dongyujia was land-rich but project-poor.
In 2020, the Dexuan Cluster was created to drive rural revitalization by pooling the three villages' land, talent and technical know-how. Today, the cluster has sprouted a rich variety of businesses from produce farming and fruit-picking to specialty food processing, agritourism study tours, livestream e-commerce, and rural sightseeing.
"We tore down the administrative walls between the villages," said Jiang Hongtao, who oversees the Dexuan Cluster. "Now, we sit down together over major issues and work through tough problems as one. We've woven the strength of all three villages into a single rope."
According to Yu Mingyuan, a local official in Dezhou, the cluster model works by grouping villages that are close in proximity, similar in resource endowments, and connected through their industries. The cluster then serves as a single unit for planning and resource allocation, synchronizing industrial development, environmental rehabilitation, and organizational capacity-building, ultimately achieving collective development and shared prosperity.
The results speak for themselves. The cluster's greenhouse count has jumped from 17 to 320, with farming now scaled up and professionally managed. In 2025, the three villages generated a collective revenue of 3.45 million yuan (about 506,117 U.S. dollars), while per capita net income reached 40,000 yuan, double what it was just five years ago.
The industrial surge has sparked a wave of improvements in local services and governance. A new convenience center now handles everyday chores for villagers, from picking up packages to paying water, electricity and phone bills. Beyond services, the cluster has repaired roads and bridges, turned derelict ponds into community assets, and improved public spaces. These visible changes have made daily life noticeably better for residents.
The cluster has also focused on the social fabric, strengthening village self-governance, mediating disputes, addressing residents' grievances, and ensuring public safety. Cultural programs have flourished, and old, outdated customs have gradually been left behind.
In Shandong alone, authorities at the provincial, municipal, and county levels have launched 2,070 clusters in a phased, tiered approach, covering more than 18,000 administrative villages.
Ninety percent of provincial-level clusters in the province have developed leading industries worth over 10 million yuan each, according to the Shandong Provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs. Meanwhile, more than 85 percent of local farmers have been engaged in industrialized agricultural operations, and per capita disposable income in the clusters is 6 percent higher than the provincial average.
What began as local experimentation has now become national policy. China's latest Five-Year Plan (2026-2030) explicitly calls for a "phased, region-based" approach to rural revitalization.
From Shandong's plains to the rest of the country, local governments are adapting the cluster model to their own realities. Some are driven by prosperous villages, others by business partnerships, and still others by local industries. But their goals are the same: to overcome the chronic challenges that have long held back rural China -- villages that are too small, resources that are too scattered, and limited opportunities for growth.
In Liuba County, deep in the mountains of northwest China's Shaanxi Province, local authorities have brought in a team of professional planners to map out a new rural blueprint. Leveraging the distinct geographical advantages, natural assets, and cultural traditions of each town and village, they have consolidated development resources across eight towns and 45 villages into 10 integrated rural clusters.
The 10 clusters are each positioned for differentiated, specialized growth to avoid uniformity. The Suoluo cluster focuses on preserving traditional villages while weaving together farming, culture and tourism. Drawing on its intangible cultural heritage, the Nanhe cluster offers wellness retreats, while the Yingpan cluster pairs cultural tours with sports tourism.
"Each village used to go its own way, building isolated attractions that failed to draw crowds," said Fang Yijun, director of the Liuba County agriculture bureau. "Now, within the cluster, routes are interlinked, scenery is connected, and industries are intertwined. The road to rural revitalization keeps getting broader."
Beyond government-led planning, some localities have turned to market-driven approaches, bringing in or cultivating leading agribusinesses to extend supply chains, boost value-added returns, and build recognizable brands.
In 2020, Taoyuan Village in Yanguan Township, east China's Zhejiang Province, introduced a gardening brand called "Tasha Gardening" and founded a company. The move paid off handsomely -- in its very first year, the company raked in over 50 million yuan in sales, a figure that has kept climbing.
Emboldened by this success, Yanguan made Taoyuan the core village of a newly formed cluster, bringing in three neighboring villages to form a collaborative "greater Taoyuan" area. At the heart of this cluster, Tasha's workshop has so far provided jobs for 164 villagers in Taoyuan itself, while the total number of jobs across Yanguan has reached 268.
"These experiments reflect a deep understanding of the patterns shaping rural development in China and mark a new phase for rural revitalization -- one defined by village-specific approaches, integrated regional planning, coordinated growth, and the mobilization of all production factors," said Lei Ming, director of the Institute on Rural Vitalization at Peking University. ■
