Shipai Village () is the largest urban village in Guangzhou, China. It is situated in the middle of Tianhe District in Guangzhou, with dense multi-story dwelling houses building in and lands for collective use. The village is supported by 170 narrow alleys yet surrounded by tall buildings and busy commercial streets. There are many shopping and entertaining centers as well as several institutions of higher education such as Jinan University nearby.

Shipai Village has a variety of traditional cultural relics and some examples of historic architecture. It mixes the elements of tradition and modernization and it serves as a "bridge" between rural areas and the city.

Overview

Geography

Shipai is a village in the center of Tianhe District in Guangzhou. Followed by the changes of the times, its range has been narrowing and its location has been changing. When the Republic of China was founded (1912), Shipai had an area of 14 km², which contains 4800 hectares of cultivated land and hills, pools, wasteland and dwelling houses. With the unification of China under Kuomintang Government and local economic achievement, municipal government confiscated the land on the northern and eastern part of Shipai in use of building horse-court, Shipai Campus of Sun Yat-Sen University, weather station, etc., which covers around 5 km². In the 1950s, the northern part of the village was occupied as a garrison for PLA, while several universities were established, such as South University (South China Normal University today), Jinan University, The Guangdong Administrative Institute of Education (The 3rd Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University today), which further narrowed the range of the village to 6 km² or so. From 1978 to 1996, cultivated land had been expropriated and since 1996 there have been only lands left for dwelling and collective use. Nowadays, the village covers 1 km² that ranges from Shipai Rd. E. to Shipai Rd. W.; from Tianhe Rd in the north to Huangpu Av. in the south.

History

Early records of Shipai Village can be tracked back to the Song dynasty. In 1273, ancestor Dong Yilong () and his family migrated from Nanxiong to where the village locates today, which later on developed into small hamlet called "Dongcun" (). With the population growth, Dong's descendants moved to higher land, which was located on the north-western side of "Miaobiangang" (). Then, descendants of surname Chi () who had lived in "Xiǎnké qiáng" () for nearly 100 years moved to the north-eastern side of "Miaobiangang" (). Gradually, two places of Dong and Chi merged into one and finally during the reign of the Chenghua Emperor in the Ming dynasty (1465–1487), the name of the hamlet was changed as "Miaobiangang".

As population spread after a century of development, people of different surname (Dong, Chi, Pan, Chen) from different places around Miaobiangang maintained close tie with each other, and made a small hamlet into a big village. Soon it formed a flea market of considerable scale. Since the market was in front (qian) of a hill (shan), people began to call it "Shanqian Shichang" (market in front of the hill). In the reign of the Jiajing Emperor in the Ming dynasty, name of the village changed to "Shipai". Until year of 1552, Shipai Village was under jurisdiction of Yongtai County.

In the beginning of the Qing dynasty, Shipai Village is a well-known village. In 1686, the local government set up 18 legal villages, all under control by a governmental branch that was named after Shipai Village. This governmental branch was not withdrawn until 1931.

During the reign of the Jiaqing Emperor in Qing dynasty (1796–1820), there formed about 20 main streets radiated from Shanqian Market (), which have maintained up to the present day. In 1828, with funds raised by villagers, main streets and some of the alleys were placed by stripes of slates.

For almost a century since the reign of the Daoguang Emperor, Shipai Village had been enjoying both economic and population growth. In 1938-1949 however, during the Second Sino-Japanese War, poverty and famine pervaded the village.

Since 1949, Shipai Village serves not only as a natural village, but also as an administrative village that concludes three natural villages (Shipai, Xinqing and East-Shipai). Shipai Village is surrounded by the city today and has become the largest urban village in Guangzhou.

Demographics

Population of Shipai Village consists of local residents and non-native floating population. Before 1949, few exotic people live here except for some military troop and police. With the switch of regime, more and more people from different parts of the country started to settle in, whether it be permanently or temporarily. Since 1978 when Deng's reform was launched, exotic population has grown tremendously. They come from all over the country (mostly from rural areas) dwelling in houses rented from villagers and earn their living in the city, most of whom are driven by economic forces.

Census 1999 recorded Shipai as having a native population of 9,317 (1,994 families). Census 2,000 recorded a non-native floating population of 42,000. The population density was 51,181/km²(including non-native floating population).

As for the local residents, population had been roaring since the very beginning until in the 1980s when the One Child Policy was forcefully executed. While exotic people are moving in, local residents are moving out. A group of villagers moved to Hong Kong, Singapore during Kuomintang period, other move farther such as to US and to Canada. Since the foundation of Sanjun Group Company, villager-funded housing project has initiated and most of the villagers have moved into their new communities.

Economy

Economy before urbanization

Before the area was urbanized, the process of economic development in Shipai could be divided into three phrases: Before agrarian reform; agrarian reform; collectivization of agriculture.

Before agrarian reform, Shipai developed in a healthy path due to its excellent geographical environment, agricultural history as well as strong influence from the city. In the early years of Kuomintang’s governance (1928–1936), economy boosted in Canton, villagers received good harvest and had a good deal. Then because of the invasion and occupation of Japanese armies, production was encumbered, houses were damaged, economy went into a tail spin. In 1946, one year after the war, Shipai was rebuilt with the help of UNRRA.

Ancient China was famous for its peasant economy and so it had limited development in terms of agrarian technology and commercial exchange. But Shipai was one of the exceptions for its cash farming and cash crop. In the 1940s, villagers began to use chemical fertilizer and pesticide as a way of increasing production. Early in 1948-1949, there was 4800 mu of cultivated land, of which 3840 mu were paddy fields, providing with some 500,000 kg paddy rice for the city and 960 mu were vegetable fields, 3,000,000 kg to the city. Shipai was once famous for its fine ageratum, which served as special product that spread widely to the country and overboard.

From Oct.1950 to Sep. 1952, agrarian reform was launched in Shipai. Almost 1124.77 mu of land was confiscated from landlords and other 2922.05 mu from farmers, entrepreneurs, capitalists, tenants, and clan, all of which were then redistributed to peasants with no or few lands. In the wake of reform since 1953, several movements had been launched in succession, such as collectivization, the Great Leap Forward, the movement to establish people's communes, and finally the Cultural Revolution. During these years, lands were centralized, economy fell, people starved and tradition ruined. It was not until 30 years later in the 1980s when lands were redistributed again that the village began to reinvigorate. In 1983, villagers were able to produce extra vegetable apart from those which were to turn over to the state. Nov. 1984, price of vegetable was open to free negotiation in the market, vegetable production in Shipai roared up.

Transformation during urbanization

The transformation of Shipai economy can be expressed in a resource sense as a process of changing pattern from land to and then to estate. As to management system, it turned thereupon from household contract system to stock-cooperative system and finally the administrative branch became a property company that deals with the collectively owned land.

With urbanization in Guangzhou speeding up, land in pre-rural areas are either being appropriated or surrounded by the city. Such challenge forced villagers to give up their tilling and start building. For the rest of its collectively owned land, they set up a property company called Sanjun Group Company and all villagers became shareholders. With such step, economy began to leap. From 1988 to 1997, the total income of its collective economy increased by 763%, net income 615%, the economical entity worth 40 times of its origin. The built-up area of its property grew from 193,900m² in 1996 to 250,000 m² in 2000 and the annual earning of the company is above 200 million yuan.

Apart from the collective economy, individual economy turned as well. On one hand villagers’ income increased tremendously due to the opening of marketing price; on the other hand, since urbanization struck the city, to which more and more people flooded, villagers raised their income as capital to rebuild their own houses for rent, which ended the era of tilling. Most of villagers are now rent collectors, and some of them are doing other business as well.

Community management mode As an administrative village before the 1980s in the time of planned economy, Shipai was wove as a production brigade that contained 27 "production teams", of which terms are still being called by villagers today. In 1982, production brigade was replaced by village neighborhood committee, but it soon turned as the leadership of its property company Sanjun established in 1997, of which villagers are shareholders and the amount of one’s shares are determined by the land one occupied and work one had done. Business as the company runs, and boards of directors and supervisors as the company has, Sanjun is more of a state enterprise than a private enterprise, which is ruled by party officials and responsible mostly for the local administration and villagers’ welfare such as schooling, medical care, security, sanitation and entertainment.

House rental trend

With people around the country swarming into the city during the process of urbanization, villagers rebuild their houses and rent them out for outsiders who can only pay low rent. Intriguing as it is, the rental services has developed so rapidly that it becomes the main source of villagers’ income. Also, it provide with dwelling places for outside people to pursue their own dreams.

Life of villagers

As the area becomes urbanized, villagers' life bears little difference with that of ordinary Cantonese, of which "chen yun" (morning walking) and "yin cha" (having morning tea) are of important part. But the connections between individuals are more intensive and everlasting in the village and it is the same in terms of friendship. Playing mah-jong is one of the most popular activities for housewives.

Growth environment and its education

Growth environment