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.
"The policy is basically saying that I give up some
of my rural housing land to investors who in return will build a new home for
me," said Wang.
So he contacted Zhang, who agreed to invest 500,000
yuan (about 75,000 U.S. dollars) right away to build two two-storey villas on
Wang's 232 square meters of land.
Wang moved into his new house with his wife, daughter
and uncle in October. His house has a floor area of 132 square meters, with 242
square meters of building area. The house cost Zhang 280,000 yuan.
The rest of Wang's land, or 100 square meters, was
given to Zhang's new country guesthouse which has 170 square meters of building
area. Zhang plans to receive tourists to Mt. Qingcheng.
But the legal footing behind the policy is more
complicated than Wang's initial understanding.
The biggest problem for reconstruction in Dujiangyan is funding, says Luo
Zhaopeng, director of the city's Urban and Rural Planning Department.
The homes of about 130,000 rural families were destroyed or damaged in the
earthquake in Dujiangyan. About one third of these families need to rebuild and
the rest need reinforcement. "Housing reconstruction will cost more than 10
billion yuan," says Luo.
Attracting urban investors will help solve the
funding problem, he says. "But there were many policy restrictions when we
initiated this practice to help the quake-hit farmers rebuild their homes."
Under China's Land Administration Law, rural
collective land use rights cannot be sold, transferred or leased for non-rural
use.
"This means that the law does not forbid the transfer
of rural collective construction land use right for tourism or service except
property development," Luo says.
Since rural housing land use rights can only be
transferred within the village collective, the village collective must
redesignate the part of the rural housing land agreed by farmers and investors
as rural collective construction land, making it transferable for investors, Luo
says.
Individual investors or companies can use the land to
run service businesses such as guesthouses or restaurants.
"Through this process, rural housing land becomes
part of collective construction land which can be transferred legally," says Wu
Jianling, of Chengdu University's Urban and Rural Development Center.
Special Report: 1st Anniversary of Wenchuan
Earthquake
