‘Beautiful China’ project: A development proposal for nonheritage rural areas in North China

The ‘Beautiful China’ project originated from the Chinese central government for the purpose of correcting the imbalance between urban and rural areas. In response to this national policy, numerous positive village development projects focus on improving the tourism potential of the Hebei province, North China. Because most of these rural areas lack historical heritage and infrastructure to support tourism, a well-directed architecture and landscape design initiative was organized by local governments. This is to create new types of livable, humanized, high standard and attractive villages through good design. A village project in Xinglong is examined, where development was strongly connected with tradition, and methods initiated to develop village tourism. In this way, the direction of the village construction can be shown and further developed and the revival of rural areas can be realized