Rural urban framework : transforming the Chinese countryside The journey : Research and design in China Rural urban framework : Village urbanization Urban village : Enclave urbanism Yongxin village : City in the village Factory village : A new industrial paradigm Lingzidi village : Resolving infrastructure conflicts Taiping village : Bridging the past Suburban village : Rise of the middle class Yanzhou village : Island urbanism Contested village : Evolving spatial geographics Tongjian village : Recycled brick school Angdong village : Rural institutions Rural village : The countryside in limbo Qinmo village : Incremental village development Luk Zuk village : Reclaiming the ancestral village Mulan village : Educational landscape Shijia village : Modern and traditional house Jintai village : Tabula Rasa village Changliu village : Failing to plan a Chinese village Future village : Villages in the urban future While most attention is given to the booming mega cities in China and the associated problems of over population the rural areas in China are being largely ignored. Yet a sustainable development of the rural areas is precisely that which will be decisive for Chinas future. Through its rapid development into an industrial country China now needs to tackle far reaching problems such as increasing population growing income gap between the poor and the rich rural exodus decreased agricultural production and environmental pollution. Rural Urban Framework is a work group at the University of Hong Kong that not only researches the far reaching changes of the last thirty years in Chinas rural areas but has also realized concrete projects aimed at improving supply and infrastructure on site. In this publication the authors present for the first time the results of their research as well as their built projects in the Chinese backlands and question whether Chinas only future model lies in cities