[Industry] No “characteristic” is not a small town

The term “characteristic town” officially appeared in the 2015 Zhejiang Provincial Government Work Report. The ” characteristic town” was originally intended to be an important platform for the integration of industry, city, people, and culture during the new normal economic period, and to promote the coordinated development of industry, tourism, culture, and community functions, so as to better promote economic transformation and upgrading, and build a ” rich and beautiful” Zhejiang.

Characteristic towns have developed rapidly Central ministries and commissions to provincial and municipal local governments have attached great importance to them. The Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, the National Development and Reform Commission, and the Ministry of Finance issued a notice on the cultivation of characteristic towns It is proposed that by 2020, about 1,000 unique and dynamic towns featuring leisure tourism, trade and logistics, modern manufacturing, education technology, traditional culture, and beautiful and livable towns will be cultivated to lead the construction and continuously improve their construction. level and quality of development.

What is a “feature”

The “characteristics” we are talking about here are not the characteristics . “Characteristics” refers to the characteristics of the industry. The characteristic towns in the process of construction are to create industrial characteristic towns, and they are high-end industry ” characteristic towns”. Characteristic towns are not administrative towns, but a city-industry integration with high-end industrial agglomeration , which should be livable and suitable for business, not a multi-functional and multi- industry complex of real estate development in a different direction. A truly characteristic town needs to have the four characteristics of “strong and unique industry, gathering together, exquisite and beautiful town, and new and lively system”.

The official website of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development issued the “Notice of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development on Several Issues Concerning Maintaining and Highlighting the Characteristics of Characteristic Towns” (hereinafter referred to as the “Notice”), positioning the word “characteristics” of characteristic towns. Respect the existing layout of the town and not blindly demolish old blocks; maintain the livable scale of the town and not blindly build tall buildings; inherit the traditional culture of the town and not blindly copy foreign cultures.

Although the concept and meaning of characteristic towns are relatively clear, most characteristic towns still stay in the external “special” in the process of construction and planning , and only pursue the characteristics of architectural style and landscape style. features that can be seen. However , the “speciality” of the internal motivation is ignored, that is, the “speciality” of the industry . This also confirms that the ” characteristics depend on the agglomeration of industries, rather than simple spatial forms and landscape environments. The ideal model of the characteristic towns we are pursuing in the development process is the development model of industry plus tourism, where industry enriches the country and tourism enriches the people.

“Special” in the industry

In the process of building a characteristic town, many people only see the appearance but not the core. The success of Zhejiang Fund Town has led many people to follow blindly and follow the trend . . What is the soul of a characteristic town? There is only one answer Industrial characteristics are the foundation and life of characteristic towns. Without the support of industrial characteristics, characteristic towns are impossible to talk about.

Director Xue Long of Greenway Cultural Tourism Town Planning Branch believes that “for characteristic towns, industry is the real core, and industrial characteristics are the most important. Characteristic towns must be considered in an overall manner with industrial planning. From the perspective of industrial structure and tourism industry In terms of structure, there must industries to support it, otherwise it will not be sustainable and will eventually become an empty city.”

The positioning of a characteristic town must closely follow the trend of industrial upgrading and lock in the main direction of the industry. However, the construction of characteristic towns now focuses more on tourism, while the attention to industry is obviously insufficient. Although many characteristic towns are guided by the tourism industry in their development model, it is undeniable that characteristic towns and tourism are inseparable, but tourism is only an engine, and the construction of characteristic towns must have the introduction of high-end industries , There is no way to achieve it by relying solely on tourism.

The Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development has announced that 127 towns, including Changgou Town, Fangshan District , Beijing, are small towns with Chinese characteristics . These small towns basically have their own characteristic industries in them. Just like a characteristic town in Guilin, Guangxi , it mainly produces a kind of agricultural product called “Yuezhi”. The cultivation of Yuezhi has reached a certain scale, but it still stays at the agricultural value of agricultural and sideline products, and its added value is not high. High, not even the deep processing of agricultural products . Then, how can we increase the added value of the industry, upgrade the entire industrial chain through the deep processing of persimmons and the research and development of the persimmon industry , and use the flowers and fruits of persimmons and their health value to develop tourism. It is driven by tourism consumption to form a flow of people, thereby boosting the development of the industry.

“Special” in IP

Distinctive IP has its unique personality and scarcity , and the mining and innovation of IP attributes needs to establish a complete cycle , and build a deep integration of business models and characteristic towns, so that Form a benign profit structure. Especially for some areas where the industrial characteristics are not obvious and the tourism resources are not rich, creating a brand new IP connotation may become the key to the development of characteristic towns and stimulate the vitality of the industry. Dean Xue believes that “the formation of characteristic will gather people, so as to truly realize the new urbanization guided by industries. But for those situations where the development direction is not obvious and the characteristics are not enough to form , At this time, it is necessary to import IP.” IP can bring people flow, and at the same time, it is in line with the development of the region and the direction of the industry, and it must also be matched with the capacity of our town.

Throughout the country, whether it is a characteristic town with ecological resources endowment, a characteristic town with history and culture, or a characteristic town with characteristic industries, it must have its own unique “business card” that can be well known by the public. If a characteristic town without resources does not have the core detonation IP import, it is just a mixture of steel and concrete, and it is impossible to avoid the doom of homogeneous competition. A successful IP must have a unique core attraction and theme, which can form a sharp contrast with other similar IPs and perfectly fit with its own industrial characteristics. It can form a certain activation effect on the town and help build the brand Popularity , enhance the introduction ability of the industry and the stickiness of fans.

epilogue

It is very important to grasp the “characteristics” in a characteristic town, and the characteristics are the starting point and the end point of everything. Therefore, the cultivation, construction and development of characteristic towns must be based on characteristics, leading and driving all process links and target visions.