Regional Development through Autonomy Establishment
in Contemporary West-China-------The case of Chengdu’s Five Golden Flowers
Liu Feng, Makoto Hirano, Liu Peiqian, Zhang Junhong
Entrepreneur Engineering Graduate School, Kochi University of Technology, Kochi,
Abstract:

Japan

China’s rapid economic growth since the 1978 reforms has resulted in not only significant

economic, social and environmental change, but also wider disparities between eastern and western China,
between urban and rural, and among individuals. Establishing autonomy of the local communities is aneffective approach to decrease the disparity. This paper examines the case of Chengdu’s Five Golden
Flowers, and searches to identify the advantages of adopting a sustainable development approach to establish
local autonomy to develop business and/or industry. Two kinds of dominant business manners are introduced
as essential strategies. The outcome of Five Golden Flowers is analyzed in terms of social and economic
efficiency to evaluate the effectiveness of this regional development project, which caused a remarkablereduction of the disparity between the urban and rural area in this region. The role of the government in therural development is defined here in terms of six criteria and three dimensions to demonstrate therelationship between the government and local businesses.
Keywords: Regional development; Establish autonomy;
autonomy through working to build a new flower

1. Introduction

business, called Five Golden Flowers. By studying
Economic growth and development in China havethe detailed procedure of their business andbeen extraordinary large and rapid since 1978.

analyzing how they established their autonomy

However, the disparities between China’s easternthrough the regulatory project, we may find someand western regions, between the rural and urban

significant implications for narrowing a wider range

sectors, and among individuals have grown moreof socio-economic disparities.

acute; these are problems that challenge theFirst,

thedetailed

situationofregional

disparities in contemporary China is articulated insustainability of China’s growth.
To resolve this issue, one important factor isan extensive reviewed of theliterature in Section

establishes

2. Then, the case of Five Golden Flowers isautonomy to develop business and/or industry,

introduced in details in Section 3, including the two

because autonomy is an essential element for

dominant business manners. The government

sustainable

process to establish local people’s autonomy is

how

each

familyorcommunity

development

in

free

marketdescribed and the input-output is analyzed incircumstance, particularly in the long term.
local

Section 4. The discussion and analysis about theagricultural communities in a small county infunction of the government are concluded inChengdu, a region of west China, establishing their

Section 5 to determine the essential conditions forThis paper describes the case of theestablishing autonomy in contemporary China. The

2.1, the first, second and third groups are thepaper ends in Section 6 with a discussion ofeastern, middle and western area respectively. In

implications.

the eastern and coastal region, most of theprovinces and municipalities, no matter per capita

2. Background:

Regional

development

urban disposable income, or per capita rural net
income, are by far higher than these in the western

disparity in current China

area which had the highest concentration of rural
Regionally, China’s eastern and coastal provinces

poverty, and the disparity has been widening overand municipalities havetime(Fang, Zhang and Fan,2002).The severity ofdeveloped at a faster pacethan their interior counterparts, leading to a severe

disparity is alarming.

disparity (Aimin CHEN,2002). As shown in Table
Table 2.1
Income and development disparity among China’s provinces (2005)
Area

urban arearural area

disposable income

actual increase

per capita(Yuan)rate to 2004(%)

Engel’s coefficient(%)

net income

actual incomesEngel’s coefficientper capita (Yuan)rate to 2004(%)

(%)

China

10493

9.6

36.7

3255

6.2

45.5

Shanghai

18645

11.8

/

8342

10.7

/

Beijing

17653

11.2

31.8

7860

8.1

32.8

Tianjin

12639

10.2

/

3590

8.9

/

Zhejiang

16294

10.4

33.8

6660

6.4

38.6

Jiangsu

12319

15.2

/

5276

8.4

/

Fujian

12321

8.2

40.9

4450.365.8

46.1

Guangdong

14769.9

6.3

36.1

4690.5

4.5

48.3

Liaoning

9108

12.8

38.8

3690

7.3

42.6

Shandong

10744.8

13.8

33.7

3930.6

12.1

39.8

Hainan

8124

8.7

/

3004

8.3

/

Hebei

9107.114.5

34.6

3481.6

9.8

41.0

Guangxi

8916.89.0

42.5

2494.78.2

51.0

Shanxi8913.912.8

32.4

2890.7

11.6

44.2

Jilin

8690.62

10.8

34.7

3263.99

8.8

43.5

Inner Mng.

9137

10.3

31.4

2898

10.5

43

Heilngjng

8273

10.7

33.5

3221

7.2

36.3

Anhui

8470.7

11.5

43.7

2641

3.8

45.5

Jiangxi

8620

14.0

/

3266

10.6

/

Henan

8667.97

10.2

34.2

2870.58

7.5

45.4

Hubei

8786

9.5

/

3099

7.2

/

Hunan9523.978.2

35.8

3117.74

7.2

52.0

Chongqing 10244

11.9

36.4

2809

11.9

52.8

Qinghai

8057.85

10.1

36.31

2165.11

8.0

45.13

Gansu

8086.82

9.63

36.04

1890

6.9

47.2

Sichuan

8386

8.8

/

2802.8

8.6/

Guizho8147.13

10.6

/

1877

5.2

/

Ningxia

8093.6

12.1

34.8

2509

6.3

44

Shanxi

8272

9.4

/

2052

6.9

/

Yunnan9265.94.5

42.8

2041.79

6.5

54.5

Xinjiang

8100

8.0

/

2482

10.6

/

Tibet

8411

2.6

53.9

2078

11.7

60.3

Sources: 2006 internet bulletin of National Bureau of Statistics of China(http://www.stats.gov.cn/tjgb/),
and authors’ calculations.
According to the recent census in 2005, till 1st

the contribution ratio of western area is higher

November in 2005, the national population reachedthan that of eastern area. In this respect, to narrow1.30628 billion. The urban population was 561.57

the disparity between the west and east, one direct

million, 42.99% of the total population; the village

and effective approach is developing the rural area

population was 744.71 million, accounting forin west-China.

57.01%. Compared with the fifth national census in

However, despite a large body of literatures

2000, the proportion of urban population increased byon the rural development in China, including Fan

6.77%. (National Bureau of Statistics of China,(1990, 1991), Fan and Pardey (1997), Huang andnational 1% population sample investigation mainRozelle (1996), Lin (1992), McMillan, Whalley,

data bulletin in 2005). The urban–rural income

and Zhu (1989), Zhang and Carter (1997),Fan anddisparity in China has also widened compared with

Zhang(2004),Michael Webber and Wang(2005).

the situation in 1978. As shown in Fig. 2.1, urban

Also many economists have described anddisposable per capita income was 2.57 of rural per

attempted to account for the changing patterns ofcapita net income in 1978, was 2.79 times in 2000,

regional area (Benjamin and Brandt, 1997; Long,and 3.22 times in 2005.

1999; Lu and Wang, 2002; Wang and Hu, 1999).

The disparities create a direct threat to the social

Even rural development has taken on an

and political stability and, thus, the sustainability of

extraordinary diversity, with observers pointing todevelopment in China. Therefore, the Premier Wen

the distinctiveness of the social relations, links to

Jiabao put forward establishing harmonic society.

the global and national economy, intra-regional

He accentuated solving the issues concerning

linkages, and regional sector specialization that

agriculture, farmer and rural area(sannong problem)

underpin development in northern Jiangsu (Liang,

as the main missions of the central government.

1994), southern Jiangsu (Ho, 1994), Wenzhou(Two conferences in 2005).

(Nolan and Dong, 1990) and the Pearl River Delta

One phenomenon is worthy paying attention, in(Lin, 1997). In these examples, development has

terms of the relatively contribution for the

been facilitated by the location of the regions in

disparity of urban and rural, as Table 2.2 shows,the accessible coastal parts of China. However,few studies have attempted to account for thethe autonomy establishment in the rural areas insuitable way to develop the western area, noWest China.

studies have systematically focus on the roles ofFig.2.1. Comparison of urban and rural per capita incomes(urban disposable income per capita/ per capita
rural net income ) Sources: Internet bulletins of National Bureau of Statistics of China(http://www.stats.gov.cn/tjgb/) and authors’ calculation
Table2.2 The rough calculation of theTheil index and Contribution ratio of eastern ,middle,western area to thenational income gap in 2002
Eastern area

Urban interior

Rural interior

Between urban and rural

0.073

0.134

0.121

Contribution ratio(%)

22.2

40.9

36.9

Rate of change to 1995

97

-46

14

0.057

0.092

0.142

Contribution ratio(%)

19.6

31.5

48.8

Rate of change to 1995

84

-7

35

0.051

0.112

0.227

Contribution ratio(%)

13.0

28.7

58.3

Rate of change to 1995

65

14

15

Theil index(ɑ=0)

Middle area
Theil index(ɑ=0)

Western area
Theil index(ɑ=0)

Sources: Research result of China academy of social sciences (Li,Yue,2004)
As the largest city in the western China, as wellIn the suburb of Chengdu, the development of Fiveas the political and economical core, Chengdu is aGolden Flowers is successful and becomes famous.

very important model for the whole western China.

Even the local people claimed in the interview to besurprised by the large change occurred during thesenear Five Golden Flowers for 7 years, visited thethree years. The success here should have somearea several times, for informal discussions with

instruction effect to other western regions, and evenvillagein the whole of China.

interviews were conducted with local peasants,

leadersandvillagers.

Open-ended

The main claim in this paper is that during

tourists, government officials and managers ofurbanization and rural development process incompanies in November 2006, to acquire more

contemporary China, taking the local specialties

quantitative information about the changes over the

into account, adopting the government-lead strategy,

previous 3 years. Finally, a large variety of archival

establishing the autonomy of the local community

materials and information have been obtained fromshould be a realistic and effective approach. A

the bulletins of the government and local almanac.

Chinese aphorism says, give a man a fish and you

It is believed that such effort may help thewill feed him for a day, teach him how to fish andresearchers keep their objective positions andyou will feed him for a lifetime. We hope that ourprotect the field researchers from the governmental

research result can give some advice to the policy

unilateral influences.

maker and also to the local governors in otherregions.

3. Establishment of Five Golden Flowers

Out information about the villages comes from avariety of sources. One of the authors used to live

3.1 Geographical and forepassed status

Fig.2.2 Location of Five Golden Flowers
Fig. 2.2 illustrates the location of the main places

and 6 counties, and covers 12,390 square kilometers.

referred to in this paper. Chengdu was confirmed by

The resident population of Chengdu is 12.21

State Council of the PRC as the center of science

million,andfinancial,accounting for 59.85%; rural population is 4.9transportation and communications in southwest

million, accounting for 40.15% ( Bureau ofarea in 1993. Chengdu governs 9 sections,4 towns

Statistics of Chengdu, 1% population sample

technology,

business

trade,

urban

population

is

7.31

million,investigation bulletin in 2005). In 2005, the urban
per capita disposable income was 11,359 Yuan,

3.2 Status quo

rural per capita net income was 4,485 Yuan,
compared with 3,655 Yuan in 2003, the rural net

As marked in the Fig.2.2, Five Golden Flowers

income shows a 22.7% increase in two years,

consists of five villages as follows: Wanfu village,

especially in Jinjing section, the increase rate waswhich is called He Tang Yue Se, that means

42.8%. Compared with the income increase rate to“Moonlight over the Lotus Pond”, encompasses

2004 showed in

1074 mu regulated area, with lotus as primary

Table 2.1, such outstanding

increase rarely occurred in the whole of China.
The Five Golden Flowers is located in Jinjing

flower, auxiliary by spatterdock, late lotus, drawing
an ecology lotus pond landscape. Fuma village,

section. As a matter of fact, they were five villages

calledDongliJuyuan,

that

means

“Dongliof Sansheng country in Jinjing section. Sansheng

chrysanthemum garden”. Xifu village, called Xinfu

county is only 7 kilometers away from the center ofmeilin, that means “Happiness plum forest”, with

Chengdu, and 5 kilometers from the Erhuan road,about 3000 mu plum forest. Xinfu meilin develops

between Sanhuan road and bypass highway.

sightseeing industry based on the plum blossom

Due to its location at the city entrance area, thisculture and plum blossom industry chain. The

region is unavailable to be used as construction land

fourth village is Jiangjiayan village, which wasaccording to the regulation. The soil texture belongs

called Jiangjia Caidi, means “Jiangjia vegetable

to the Longquan cordillera acidity inflation soil,yard”. Here, the Renzhong manner has transformed

which is unsuitable to plant foodstuff.

the traditional agricultural industry to a leisureindustryindustry, and modernized the interaction between

experience can be traced back to Qianlong

city and countryside. The last member of the Five

period(1736-1795),about 300 hundred years ago.

Golden Flowers is Hongsha village, called Hua

From the early 1980s, the household responsibility

xiang nongju, that means “flower farmer residence”.

system was introduced. The communal land was

It has been assessed as a national AAAA level

redistributed to peasant households, so that eachscenery place. The potted flower, cut flowers,

household received its own roughly equal allocation

ornamental fresh flowers and tourism are theof land (either per capita, or per adult, or per maledominant industry in Hongsha village.

Five

GoldenFlowers’

floweradult, depending on the region). The population in
Sansheng country was 18,347, with a 93.4% of

3.3

agricultural population, 12,676 mu agrarian squares

manners------Happy

were more or less equally distributed, resulting in a“Renzhong” mannersmall average ofusedfamily-scale,uniquerural
Farmhousebusinessand

0.7 mu per household member(1mu equals one-fifteenth hectare). The flower
industry

Two

to
using

be

dispersed

inefficient

and
and

3.3.1 Happy Farmhousesmall,
obsoletetechnology.

Happy Farmhouse is a type of tourism, whichtakes the countryside landscape, the attractive

The village people mentioned that one of theenvironment, the countryside folk culture andFive Golden Flowers----Hongsha village was evencustoms and atmosphere of farm life as basic

called Siberian of Chengdu in 80s.

tourism resources, the farmers’ residence as the unit

of business, the experiences of the village life as the

4. Development procedure and Input-output

marketable product. The main tourist activities areanalysis

eating the peasant family’s food, living in an
agricultural house, doing agricultural work and4.1 Hardware----infrastructure construction
From

enjoying contacting with a peasant family. (cf.

2003,Jinjing

government

began

Sichuan Province Chengdu city: "The General

improving rural infrastructure in Sansheng country,

statue of service quality in Chengdu Happy

the basic principle was described as constructing

Farmhouse”) .The Happy Farmhouse system notthis area as sightseeing place appropriately,

only affords a new leisure form and an amusement

maintaining

space, but also plays a vital role in reforming

involves:

farmers’ industrial structure and increasing farmers’zItornamentasnormative

westernphase, the government paid 80% of thewith 237,970

reconstruction fee.

employees and nearly 500,000 indirectly employedfarmers. These Happy Farmhouses hosted 82.44

environment.

Sichuan farmer residence style. During the first

In Sichuan province, at the end of 2005, there
were 17,037 Happy Farmhouses,

ecological

Rehabilitation of the rural residences. Adding
external

income.

thez

Urbanization of rural infrastructure. Road net,

million tourists for a reception income of 246.8

sewage treatment, natural gas pipelines andmillion Yuan. (China tourism newspaper:2006).

water supply were built with the appropriating
funds from government.

Happy Farmhouse, which received an averageof 10,000 tourists per day, had become one of thez

Modernization

of

the

accessory

facility.

dominant industries in Five Golden Flowers. In

Countryside cable TV terminal households

Hongsha village, for example, there are more thanwere increased to 1500 units and optical fiber

90 Happy Farmhouses.

was installed in each household. According toconstruction regulation of the community
health service center, a 200 square meters3.3.2 Renzhong manner

health service center was built in Five Golden

Renzhong manner was developed by Jiangjia

Flowers.

vegetable yard, which provides clients with theopportunity to plant, watch and taste the greenzConstruction of ecological landscape. Green

vegetables. At present, the advertising slogan is "Beplaza, Niu Wangmiao were rebuilt, thea farmer for a year for 800 Yuan". As the term

protection

suggests, for that small fee anyone can have aunderway, and the “Agricultural Civilization

vegetable garden (one tenth of a mu) in Jiangjia

Memory Hall” was built.

vegetable yard, and such services as growingzofecologicalvegetationwas

Large-scale land management. Under theseedlings, planting or harvesting are charged by thepremise of not reducing the original cultivatedland owner. The tourist can participate according toarea, the land was rearranged by dismantling

his or her own interest, and the agricultural produce,

the courtyards, the ridge of field and so on. The

will be completely processed by the tourist.

concentrative construction land were auctioned

Renzhong manner currently attracts hundreds ofor used for commercial development.

tourists each year.

z

IntroductionofCompany&

Project

Foundation. Supports were afforded to thezfloriculture companies in the aspects of fund,Hongsha village declared in our interview thattechnology

they have held lots of training lectures orandpolicyfromdifferent

departments of government.

symposiums from 2003. What is more, just one

Financial assistance. Low or no interest loans

month ago, the manager from Minshan

were afforded to the local entrepreneurships, torestaurant(five stars hotel in Chengdu) worked

encourage them to create their own business.

one month in Hongsha village, instructing
every Happy Farmhouse on site.

4.2

Software----culture

factor,education,
4.3 Input-output analysis

training, social security system
were

From the initiative of the Five Golden Flowers inintroduced into the Five Golden Flowers to promote

2003, the section government (including thetheagriculture

country government) has invested 97.45 million

industry to the leisure economy. Furthermore, theYuan, and municipal government has invested 18

government paid special attention to cultivate themillion,independent competition of the local people. It

Simultaneously,

involves:

investment also has involved in the projectz

Increase cultural attachment value to theoperation, reaching 1670 million Yuan, among

traditional industry. The first “Sichuan flower

them, Huaxiang Nongju (1000 million Yuan),

exposition” was held in Five Golden Flowers

Xinfu Meilin(40 millionYuan), Jiangjia Caidi(10Theculturalanddevelopment

industrial

fromfactors

traditionalthamountingato115.45

million.

massiveoffundsocialfirst

million Yuan), Dongli Juyuan(1 million Yuan),“China·Chengdu plum blossom festival” wasHetang Yuese (about 16 million Yuan). We analyze

on

September

29 ,

2003;

the
th

held in Xinfu Meilin on December 27 , 2004.

the input-output benefit in two aspects, the social

Hetangand the economical efficiency.

Yuese

was

endowedwiththeconnotation of music and the drawing art bybuilding special artist village. Reappearance ofagricultural culture civilization was underway

z

Five

GoldenFlowers

encompasses

in Jiangjia Caidi; The chrysanthemum flavor

approximately 12 square kilometers. According to

was

in

DongliJuyuan.

the conventional urbanization standard (including

andmutualismofthepark construction), the average investment needed

cultural industry and agricultural industry was

to construct the basic infrastructures and urbanize a

implemented.

square kilometer is approximately 150 million

Social security system was constructed for theYuan(empirical and statistical estimate of Chengdu

local people. All the peasants have beenmunicipal construction). Thus, 1800 billion Yuan

completely

ruralshould be needed in the Five Golden Flowers.

cooperatives medical service. 92% land-lost,

However, in fact, each square kilometer was

62% quasi-land-lost peasants have participatedinvested only 15 million Yuan. The entire area wasin the social endowment insurance system.

invested less than l80 million Yuan, but formed a

Experts and consultants were invited to train or

leisure open style park with attractive rural sceneryeducate the peasants in the field of flowerand harmonious ecological environment for theindustry or restaurant. The governors incitizens, where millions of people come forshown

Complementationz

4.3.1 Social efficiency

included

in

the

new

vacation each year. Moreover, it has attracted

million Yuan in 2005, from 0.401 million in

multitudinous

and2002, with a 300% annual increase rate.

management merchants, Due to the improvement ofDuring these three years, the average increase

the countryside infrastructure, the change of theof the financial revenue in Jingjiang section is

traditional life and production method, the peasantsabove 20%.Taking this data as the evaluation

can also enjoy the city civilization. It largely

standard, the investment recovery period of

promoted the urbanization progress.

Five Golden Flowers is about 9 years.

agricultural

enterprises

5. Analysis and discussion

4.3.2 Economical efficiency.
The economical efficiency was summarized as

In the rural development progress, the function

follows:
z

z

z

z

z

z

Output growth of the floriculture industry.

of the government should be generally regarded as

From 41.24 million Yuan in 2000, it extended

a sine qua non. In this context, the UNDP’s

to 65.6 million Yuan in 2005, with a 59.l%

perspective on local governance is informative:

increment.

Local governance comprises of a set of institutions,

The tourism income. Till now, Five Golden

mechanisms and processes through which citizens

Flowers has received about 11 million tourists,

and their groups can articulate their interests andwith reception income of 234 million Yuan.

needs, mediate their differences and exercise their

The appreciation of peasants’ properties. For

rights and obligations at the local level. It requires

thecountryside

partnership between local governmental institutions,environment, the rent of land raised from 1,005

civil society organizations and private sector for

to 2,000 Yuan per mu. The price ofparticipatory, transparent, accountable and equitable

reconstructed residences raised from 500 toservice1600 Yuan per square meter. The appreciationnecessitates empowering local governments withof the peasants’ household properties has

authority and resources and building their capacity

surpassed 1.3 billion Yuan in Five Golden

to function as participatory institutions that are

Flowers.

responsive and accountable to the concerns and

The increase of peasants’ income. The

needs of all citizens. At the same time, it ispeasants’ income composes four stable parts:

concerned with strengthening of grass roots

rent, salary, bonus and welfare. In 2005, thedemocracy and empowering citizens, communities

per capita net income in Five Golden Flowers

and their organizations such as CBOs and NGOs toreached 6,321 Yuan, especially in Hongsha

participate as equal partners in local governancevillage,and local development process (italics added by

improvement

of

the

it reached 7,060 Yuan, with andelivery

and

local

development.

increase of 40.5% compared with 2003.

David J.A:2005).

The appreciation of the collective property.

www.undp/org.governance/local.htm

It

The collective property of Five Golden

In developing countries, governments usually

Flowers was 8.373 million Yuan In 2002. In

tend to take a more active role in the regional

2005, it reached 35.83 million Yuan,development and operation of projects, due to thetheannual increased rate was 122%.

scarcity of resources and the absence of a strong

Increase of tax revenue. It increased to 12

and experienced private sector (Jenkins& Henry,

1982; Qiu, Zhang, & Ap, 1999; Richter, 1983). In

investment, coordinating the relationships among

other viewpoint, some researchers worried about

the communities, household families, externalthat China’s current vertical bureaucratic system,

capitals and so on. The explicit achievements canwhich lacks a clear definition of governments’be depicted as three dimensions: firstly the business

respectiveinplatform has been constructed where the local(Ying, Zhou:2005), maybe enables

people can select a suitable approach to make use of

the governments to intervene into the rural

their resources: operating their own flower businessdevelopment to an optional extent, according toor Happy Farmhouse, Renzhong their lands,

their practical interests and needs. Especially,working in the companies, etc. Secondly, no fear of

several defects of the over control of the Chinese

trouble in the rear was somehow guaranteed due togovernment in tourism development have beenthepointed out (Li & Lin, 2000). These issues, theendowment

proper role of the government in the rural

education system, particularly the first two subjects

development and what kind of strategy to adopt, arewhich used to be only citizens’ welfare. Last but

hotly debated.

not least, the tool that was endowed to the local

purviews

administration

andcommitments

availability

of

the

insurance,

medicalfor-freeinsurance,compulsory

of

the

rural

people includes material and spiritual aspects. Onasignificant

one hand, the traditional isolated flower production

transformation in the model of urbanization inhas been changed to the extensive, large-scale

post-reform China, a society dominated by a large

management business, the rural tourism industry

rural

has been soundly developed,

local people

gradually

management

Nowadays,development,

in

the

there

processhas

population

been

but

with

accelerated

industrialization and development.

In the context

masterthebusinessof Five Golden Flowers, it is hard to classify itknowledge by training, educating and experience.

whetherurbanization

On the other hand, this pattern is not only simply

spontaneouschanging the household registration status (hukou)

urbanization (urbanization from below) as Shenof the peasants from the countryside to urban, but(2006) mentioned. The development of Five Golden

also promoting the integration of the urban andFlowers is unique and creative. The roles that therural. Urban residents engage in sightseeing,

ChineseChengduoperating business or Renzhong land. Peasants also

municipal, Jinjiang section and local governments)

can experience the citizen life more conveniently

has played can be evaluated through six criteria andandthree dimensions. Six criteria means operator,

bidirectional

regulator,

contribute to update the ideological system of theit(urbanization

is

state

from

sponsored
above)

government(includes

investment

or

the

stimulator,

promoter,coordinator, as well as educator, three dimensions

initiatively

thanbefore.

ideologicalSuchinteraction

kind

of

shouldlocal people.

consist of constructing the platform, insuring no

As has been shown before, the autonomy of thefear of trouble in the rear, and presenting tools.

local people and communities has been established.

Concretely, the government, as the biggest player

It appears that the Five Golden Flowers has

and initiator, who operates the project in macro andsufficient momentum to become self-sustaining.

holistic point of view, regulating the statutes andcondition, promoting the infrastructure and living
environment, stimulating the external and internal

6. Conclusion

Through the case study, this paper introduces thedevelopment strategy and dramatic transformation

Acknowledgementin Chengdu Five Golden Flowers,

The authors would like to thank for Sichuan

attempts to understand the common characters by

Provincial Statistical Burea, Chengdu Statisticalcreating

Bureau,that took placeandemployinganewChineseothercountygovernment

and

in

Changyun tourism company. Above all, grateful

Similar to the situations in manythanks to the villagers of Five Golden Flowers forcharacterized concept of regional development
west China.

Sanshengdeveloping

countries,

thecurrentsocio-economic and political settings of China

their hospitality: they were generous with their timeand knowledge.

makes it almost impossible to completely copy thewestern-styled regional development principles into

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