In the first week of the new year, the Zhaoqing Sihui (Dasha) Wanyang Zhongchuang City officially broke ground, with more than 100 enterprises expected to be introduced; manufacturing is driving the county economy's robust development. Meanwhile, in Wuyang Town, Wuchuan City, Zhanjiang, the construction of a three-story "Beautiful Living Room" is in full swing, accelerating the building of a beautiful market town. Strolling through Langtou Village, Tanbu Town, Huadu District, Guangzhou, the aroma of coffee wafts from the village café; the "government + enterprise + village collective" cooperation model has brought new vitality to this century-old ancient village...
2023 was the opening year for Guangdong's in-depth implementation of the "High-Quality Development Project for Hundreds of Counties, Thousands of Towns, and Myriad Villages" (the "Hundred-Thousand-Myriad Project"). Over the past year, all parts of the province have advanced coordinated urban-rural and regional development with the intensity of a top-priority project, focused on cultivating advantageous county industries, vigorously elevated the level of urban construction, explored new rural collective economies to comprehensively advance rural revitalization, and joined forces to play a "concerto" and jointly draw "one blueprint." The beautiful vision of Chinese-style modernization is unfolding across the land of southern Guangdong.

　　Strengthening Characteristic County Industries
Accelerating the Building of a Modern County Industrial System
Recently, the project of Guangdong Xinjingfeng Packaging Industrial Development Co., Ltd., located in the China Fragrance Valley (Yangxi) Health Food Industrial Park, is under accelerated construction, with the first-phase infrastructure expected to be completed by the end of January this year.
"Now is the golden period for construction; next we will allocate manpower and materials well to speed up progress," said Yu Mingui, the project leader. Once the project is completed and reaches full production, it will produce 120 million plastic packaging bottles annually, further strengthening the green food industry cluster of Yangxi County, Yangjiang City.
Inside the park, in the fermented bean curd production workshop of Guangdong Jushu Food Co., Ltd., jars of products roll off the assembly line, sold as far as Japan, Southeast Asia, the United States, Europe, and other places.
Yuan Yuhua, the company's managing director, introduced that the third phase of construction, covering about 6,000 square meters, is currently underway, with plans to add two sauce production lines. Once the third phase reaches full production, annual output value is expected to reach 300 million yuan. "Yangxi County, as the 'Capital of Chinese Condiments,' has unique natural resource conditions, and we hope to leverage this to develop the company into the top tier of its vertical field nationwide."
All parts of the province are adapting to local conditions with "one county, one policy," highlighting integrated development, strengthening characteristic county industries, and accelerating the building of a modern county industrial system.
On January 9, the Zhaoqing Sihui (Dasha) Wanyang Zhongchuang City officially broke ground, planning to introduce industries mainly focused on forging and casting for mechanical equipment, hardware processing, and auto parts. According to the project leader, more than 100 enterprises are expected to be introduced, providing nearly 5,000 jobs. At the same time, Sihui is seizing major opportunities for paired assistance and is accelerating the joint construction of the Sihui Fine Chemical Industrial Park with Zengcheng, Guangzhou. Currently, Sihui has made the list of "Top 100 County-Level Cities in Comprehensive Strength in China" and has been selected as a pioneering model county for the province's "Hundred-Thousand-Myriad Project," with its GDP steadily advancing toward the 100-billion-yuan mark.
In Gaozhou, Maoming, a major agricultural county in Guangdong, the trend of agricultural industrialization is becoming prominent.
In the Simiao rice processing workshop in the core area of the provincial-level Simiao Rice Modern Agricultural Industrial Park, located in the Jiugang Industrial Park of Shigu Town, Gaozhou, a rich rice aroma fills the air. With just a few button presses, technicians automatically complete the processes of initial screening, hulling, secondary screening, separation, milling, and polishing of paddy rice. This production line, which cost more than 50 million yuan to build, requires only five people to achieve a daily output of 200 tons of Simiao rice. Currently, Gaozhou is vigorously developing its modern agricultural industry, with nine national and provincial-level modern agricultural industrial parks, and the industrial cluster is continuously improving.
For counties to be strong, developing industries is key. Guangdong is making every effort to upgrade the entire chain of rural industries and to build modern rural industrial clusters that reflect Lingnan characteristics: the modern agriculture and food cluster maintains steady growth; key projects such as national advantageous and characteristic industrial clusters, cross-county cluster industrial parks, and food demonstration bases have become growth poles; and cluster chain-leader enterprises are being cultivated as "bellwethers."
Next, Guangdong will focus heavily on industrial development, comprehensively enhance the comprehensive strength of the county economy, highlight characteristic development to cultivate advantageous county industries, and ensure that high-quality county development is built on a strong industrial foundation.

　　Elevating the Level of Urban Construction
Beautiful Market Towns and Strong-Town Industries Advance in Tandem
At the turn of the year, Wuyang Town, Wuchuan City, Zhanjiang, is bustling: near the town government, the construction of the three-story Wuyang Town "Beautiful Living Room" is in full swing, and the main structure of the project has now been completed.
During the early construction of the Wuyang Town "Beautiful Living Room," wall bricks from the Yongle period of the Ming Dynasty were unearthed. "Therefore, the first floor is planned to draw on the practice of Guangzhou's Beijing Road Pedestrian Street, where reinforced glass is used to enclose and protect the ruins and historic site, combined with lighting to create an exhibition; the second floor will be built into the first town-level inscription museum in western Guangdong; and the third floor will be designed as a stepped cultural exhibition hall," said Yu Guoqiang, director of the Wuyang Cultural Station.
Including the "Beautiful Living Room," Wuyang Town takes the "Seven Ones" construction of a beautiful market town as an important lever and makes every effort to advance the transformation of the town and village's appearance: a beautiful town entrance passage, a beautiful demonstration main street, a sample area for upgrading building facades, a beautiful market town living room, a clean and tidy farmers' market, a beautiful river channel, and a green and beautiful ecological pocket park.
To elevate the level of urban construction, improving the appearance of towns and villages is one of the keys.
Fashionable and novel facades, clever and humorous shop names, and a white "leopard cat" hidden on a shop roof make people unable to resist taking out their phones to snap photos... This is the change brought by the whole-street renovation of Zenglong Road, the main street of Yonghan Town, Longmen County, Huizhou City.
Yonghan Town has abundant hot spring resources, a good ecological environment, and a profound red heritage, and is a major tourism town in Longmen County. Xiao Kaibin, Party Secretary of Yonghan Town, introduced that Yonghan Town plans to build Zenglong Road into a characteristic block integrating commerce, leisure, cultural charm, and environmental features. "We have also upgraded and renovated the Yonghan Bridge, created an ecological and beautiful pocket park, and added parking spaces, making Yonghan Town more livable and tourist-friendly."
Industry is an important pillar for the high-quality development of the town economy. All towns across the province rely on their resource endowments to develop characteristic industries and strengthen the town economy.
Cured sausages, cured meat, cured duck, cured eggs... Every autumn and winter, the rooftops, eaves, and terraces of every household in Dongpi Town, Lianzhou City, Qingyuan, are hung with "cured delicacies," section after section and string after string gleaming golden.
Dongpi cured delicacies are the dominant advantageous industry of Dongpi Town. Currently, the town has more than 100 cured delicacy production and processing enterprises and workshops, driving employment for more than a thousand people. At the same time, Dongpi Town is vigorously introducing leading enterprises to drive the industry along the path of scale, and the Dongpi Town Agricultural-Tourism Multi-Functional Industrial Park, with an investment of 130 million yuan, has recently officially begun production.
"Our peak production capacity can reach 500 million yuan for the whole year," introduced Cheng Ji, managing director of the park investor, Lianzhou Futang Food Co., Ltd. The park's first phase invested more than 50 million yuan to build professional air-drying rooms, enabling year-round production of Dongpi cured delicacies.
Since last year, towns (streets) across the province have burst with vitality and unleashed potential, and batches of beautiful market towns, central towns, specialized towns, and characteristic towns have been revitalized. A relevant official from the Provincial Department of Housing and Urban-Rural Development said that next Guangdong will focus on the construction of model towns, give play to their demonstration and leading role, and drive the province to build towns with "thriving industries, orderly development, comfort and livability, complete functions, convenient living, and efficient governance," helping coordinated urban-rural and regional development.

　　Strengthening the Village Collective Economy
Attracting Capital, Technology, Talent, and Other Factors to Flow to Villages
"Three, two, one, go!" On a winter morning, Langtou Village, Tanbu Town, Huadu District, Guangzhou, was bustling as a mini-marathon kicked off. As the starting gun sounded, more than 300 running enthusiasts shot like arrows into the mountains and countryside, jointly participating in this "New Year's first run."
Langtou Village, an ancient village with more than 700 years of history, has a long-standing farming-and-reading culture. But as time passed, the village gradually faced the dilemma of hollowing out.
Since the Huadu District Government and Vipshop signed a strategic cooperation agreement on the Langtou rural revitalization project, driven by the "government + enterprise + village collective" cooperation model, the ancient village's development has turned a corner and taken on new vitality: the Chunyangtai Art and Culture Center, the ancient village market and exhibitions, the high-end homestay "Hechunzhu"... a batch of engineering projects have been completed and put into operation one after another.
"The village's popularity has clearly picked up, attracting more and more commercial entities and tourists, and also providing local villagers with job opportunities close to home," introduced Wu Xiaochang, mayor of Tanbu Town.
Today's Langtou Village has seen fashionable brands such as KFC's freshly ground coffee, Moutai ice cream, and Pop Mart move in one after another. Many villagers have started businesses at their doorsteps, opening agritainment restaurants, coffee shops, and homestays.
"Over the past six months, visitor traffic to Langtou ancient village has reached its highest peak in recent years, with weekend traffic rising from an average of two to three hundred people per day to the current average of 7,000 per day," introduced Zhang Liang, Party Secretary and Vice President of the Vipshop Group. Since the launch of the Langtou rural revitalization project, it has driven more than 200 jobs and helped solve local villagers' employment problems.
What has changed is not only Langtou ancient village. Guangdong is vigorously advancing institutional and mechanism reform, stimulating and unleashing the vitality and potential of county, town, and village development, focusing on "liberating" authority, "revitalizing" resources, and "activating" factors, and actively exploring ways to realize the new rural collective economy, bringing village after village to life.
"It's arrived! It's over 150,000 yuan!" At the end of 2023, news came in one after another from various parts of Yunfu: with the arrival of fourth-quarter income from the "government-bank-enterprise-village" jointly built ecological breeding communities and other projects, the collective operating income of all 972 villages (communities) exceeded 150,000 yuan.
Wens Foodstuff Group Co., Ltd. is one of the market entities participating in the "government-bank-enterprise-village" joint construction model.
Li Shaosong, the company's president, introduced that under this model—"government and bank contribute funds, the enterprise operates, and the village becomes a shareholder"—the model not only increases production capacity and output for the enterprise but also steadily returns operating income to the rural collective economy, solving the problem of weak village-level collective economic income. "This model's effect in boosting village collective economic income is very obvious, and we are promoting it to the counties (cities, districts) where Wens' subsidiaries are located."
Solving the problem of weak village collective economic income is an important task in deepening the advancement of the "Hundred-Thousand-Myriad Project."
Currently, all parts of Guangdong are accelerating the exploration of new paths for developing new rural collective economies, attracting factors such as capital, technology, and talent to flow to towns and villages, injecting a steady stream of strong momentum into town and village development, and helping comprehensive rural revitalization.