Rural land policies tested in China´s quake zone

Source: Xinhua | 05-11-2009 10:28

by Qiu Lin

DUJIANGYAN, Sichuan, May 10 (Xinhua) -- A two-storey villa would have been impossible for hog raiser Wang Quan without the joint reconstruction policy in Dujiangyan, one of the cities hardest hit by last year's May 12 earthquake. Wang's house in Chaping village became too dangerous to live in after the 8-magnitude quake.

"I wouldn't be able to afford to build such a house in 10 years, but now, without paying anything, I'm living in a villa," Wang says.

When he learned from the village committee in June that the Chengdu municipal government issued a policy which encouraged people from the city to jointly build homes with quake-hit farmers, Wang immediately thought of Zhang Zhonggui.

Zhang, a client of his hoggery business, had said that he wanted to build a house on Wang's rural housing land in the picturesque Mt. Qingcheng area, but the law prohibited him from doing so. Now with the new policy, there is a chance, Wang says.

Under China's existing land ownership structure, urban land is owned by the state while rural land is owned by the rural collective. The collective, often a village committee, distributes land-use rights to households. Rural land includes farmland and rural construction land for housing, township enterprises and public structures. Farmers are allowed to transfer their rural housing land use rights to other members within the rural collective.