Urban-rural integration and rural sustainable development are not only the important strategic themes of China's modernization, but also the main frontier topics of rural regional system research in geography. Facing the problems of urban-rural segregation, human-land segregation and increasingly severe rural diseases in the process of rapid urbanization in China, urban-rural integration and rural revitalization are accelerated to be the national strategies. This research briefly analyses the economic and social background of rural revitalization and its significance in the new era. It is pointed out that the important responsibility of modern geography to face the national strategy and serve the rural revitalization is to deeply explore the major theories and scientific approaches of the coupling of man-land system, the integration of urban-rural development and the fit of the functions of villages-towns, while this paper focuses on the domestic research progress of rural revitalization strategy since it has been proposed for one year and the main contents and characteristics of this special issue. Finally, focusing on giving full play to the advantages and characteristics of geography, this paper expounds the theoretical frontiers and scientific and technological needs of the scientific research on rural revitalization in the new era. The ten frontier issues mainly include the differentiation and integration mechanism of urban and rural regional system; the transformation mechanism and scientific approach of rural regional system; the interaction principle and planning governance of agriculture, farmers and rural areas; the mutual feedback mechanism of rural natural-social-technical system; the coupling process and scenario simulation of rural man-land system; the suitability and carrying capacity of rural spatial reconstruction; and rural transformation developing endogenous power and synergy mechanism; new subjectivity and farmers' organization of rural revitalization; efficiency and transmission mechanism of scientific and technological innovation of rural revitalization; disaster and risk control mechanism of rural regional system. And we put forward some preliminary thoughts and suggestions for deepening the research of rural science and geography on rural revitalization in China.

Rural revitalization strategy is the general starting point for China's agriculture, rural areas and farmers in the new era. Because of the significant differences in rural areas in China, it is necessary to promote rural revitalization strategy according to local conditions, regional guidance and classification. Based on the theory of regional system of human-land relationship, this study constructs a comprehensive index system and measurement model to measure the level of rural development from the perspectives of resource endowments, geographical environment, humanistic elements and economic level, divides the areal types in rural China, and suggests the regional development ways. The results show that the level of rural comprehensive development in China varies significantly from east to west and that level in the eastern region is generally higher than that in the central and western regions. China's rural areal types can be divided into 11 first-class zones and 45 second-class zones, and there are distinct regional differences among different types. Geographical environment is the decisive factor for the differentiation of rural areal types, and resource endowment or resource type is the key factor for rural regional differentiation, and human and economic factors play an important role in the transformation and development of rural areal system. The connotation of rural areal differentiation lies in the difference of development level and industrial structure. The difference of rural development level is the comprehensive reflection of the interaction of many factors such as resource endowment, function orientation, location condition, national or regional policy, and historical background. From the perspective of human-land relationship, this study analyzes the characteristics, problems and development strategies in different types of rural areas so as to provide theoretical basis and decision-making guidance for the smooth promotion of the rural revitalization strategy in the new period.

In the new era, China is promoting integrated urban and rural areas. Rural territory is in the process of transformation, development and reconstruction. The features of rural territorial function diversification and multi-functionality have become more and more obvious. This paper takes Liaoning province, which is one of the national grain producing bases and old industrial bases in China, as the research area. It constructs an evaluation index system of rural territorial multifunctions from the following four aspects: agricultural production function, non-agricultural production function, dwelling and living function, and ecological service function. Jenks and Global Spatial Autocorrelation are used to explore the spatial pattern and spatial correlation of rural territorial functions. The Spearman's rho is used to analyze the interactions among rural territorial functions. This paper identifies the dominant function types of different counties in Liaoning province, and puts forward policy recommendations for their future development. The results of the study are reflected in the following three aspects: (1) The spatial distribution of rural territorial functions has obvious spatial heterogeneity and spatial agglomeration characteristics in Liaoning province. The highest and higher values of agricultural production function concentrate in the Liaohe River Plain. Non-agricultural production function decreases from the core urban areas, the highest, and higher values areas to the outside. The highest, higher, and middle values of dwelling and living function concentrate in municipal districts. The highest and higher values of ecological service function are observed in the mountainous areas. (2) According to the correlation among rural territorial functions and the actual interaction among functions, the types of interaction among functions have been clearly identified, which can provide guidance for the regulation of functions. (3) Based on the status and interactions of different functions, eight types of rural territorial functions have been identified. According to the types, preliminary proposals are put forward for the future development of rural areas in Liaoning province, which would provide references for the promotion of the rural transformation and the balanced urban and rural development.

In recent years, the urban-rural gap is increasing with the rapid urbanization and industrialization. Due to the urban plundering of rural talents, land and industry, “rural diseases” are becoming increasingly prominent. Thus, rural revitalization aiming at reducing the urban-rural gap is an important strategy to promote urban-rural integration. This article measures the rural development degree of Jinghai District using raster-based analysis of economy, population, resources-environment and location. The study divides Jinghai District into four rural development types and finds rural revitalization poles by multidimensional spatial aggregation analysis. The results show that the spatial differences of economy, population and location in Jinghai District are significantly higher than those of resources-environment: the economy presents the integration zone centered on Daqiu Town, Tuanbo Town and Dafengdui Town; the population is presented as multiple cores; the location in the central region is higher than that of other regions with decreasing towards the east and west; the spatial distribution of resources-environment is relatively consistent. According to the rural development degree, Jinghai District is divided into four zones: the business development zone (11.7%) is mainly concentrated in the central region with high level of all elements; the industrial development zone (20.2%) is mainly distributed in the east with high level of economy and resources-environment, and medium level of population and location; the facility agricultural development zone (45.1%) is in the southwest with medium level of all elements; and the traditional agricultural development zone (22.9%) is located in the south with low level of all elements. According to the characteristics and rural problems of the four zones, the study explores rural revitalization ways based on system, industry, talent and technology. In terms of system, this article suggests to establish land management institutions and agricultural product market management associations; in terms of industry, this article proposes to upgrade the industry and build new industrial parks in remote regions; in terms of technology, the study suggests to use network technology to lead rural development; in terms of talent, this paper proposes to train talents of management, organization and production. Lastly, the study puts forward three rural revitalization modes for different zones combining system, industry, technology and talent. The modern agriculture scale development mode will solve the rural problems of low production efficiency and weakening of agricultural production labor (Ⅳ, Ⅴ, Ⅵ) by introducing advanced technology and increasing industrial chain; the enterprise scale development mode will solve small and scattered businesses and environmental pollution in villages (Ⅱ, Ⅲ) through gathering scattered industries and cultivating technical talents; and the satellite town (central community) development mode will provide public services for remote villages (Ⅳ, Ⅵ) by enhancing the radiation of facilities and transforming industries. It is of great inspiration to realize rural revitalization and speed up urban-rural integration.

The rural revitalization strategy is an undertaking in China to advance urban and rural integration. China is an agricultural country with a large but poor rural population. At the village level, the rural revitalization strategy has the potential to alleviate poverty and affect millions of citizens. Poverty-stricken areas are a composite of fragile ecological environments and rural impoverished communities. Beyond that, they are also major battlefields for poverty elimination as well as crucial regions for rural revitalization. How to scientifically identify the different types of rural areas and promote rural revitalization of typical areas will be of significant importance for resolving problems such as unbalanced, inadequate rural development. This study features Tongxin, which is a poverty-stricken county located in northwest China, and relies on an approach including a comprehensive evaluation method to measure rural development level, using technology to identify village type as well as expert consultation method analysis. At the same time, this paper proposes a theory of a rural regional system, elaborates on the urban-rural integrative development theory, and analyzes the structural framework evolution of rural spaces as well as the reconstruction and optimization of the structural function of urban and rural areas. It formulates an identification system for the rural poverty-stricken areas in northwest China, which are to be revitalized; to do so, it makes classifications and determinations through four sub-systems (rural subject, industry development, living environment, and resources) so as to identify the rural type. In combination with consultation and analysis from experts, as well as consideration of the rural features, the rural areas to be revitalized are classified into different types: agglomeration for improvement, mixing three industries, urban-suburban integration, protection due to its special nature, relocation and merging. In combination with different modes of rural revitalization, corresponding development methods are proposed accordingly, so as to provide theoretical evidence and decision references for new urbanization and urban-rural integration strategies in addition to the rural revitalization strategy.

Detecting a pathway towards rural vitalization has drawn considerable attentions from both governments and scholars in China within the context of rural restructuring. Given that territorial functions of rural areas varies cross the country, it is essential to clarify the spatial pattern of territorial functions for demystifying the model and pathway of rural development. Taking Jiangsu - one of the most developed provinces in eastern China - as an example, this paper proposes an indicator system for rural territorial function covering triple dimensions of economic development, life support, and ecological conservation. Thereafter, we conduct an empirical study at the county and district level followed by a discussion about potential pathways towards the vitalization of villages in different zones. The findings imply that: 1) the function of economic development in rural Jiangsu is not as good as expected, and the degree of spatial agglomeration is relatively low. Coincidently, the pattern of life support is consistent with that of economic development, which is regarded as a trend of gradual decline from south to north. Few districts or counties can be detected with high values of ecological conservation, which suggests an urgent demand for sustainable development in rural Jiangsu. 2) Taking the spatial heterogeneity of rural areas in respect of their overall functions into consideration, we further divide the province into four zones, namely primarily developed zone, optimized developing zone, transformation zone, and lagging underdeveloped zone. Finally, we put forward some suggestions for rural vitalization in the aforementioned functional zones, and argue that rural revitalization is a long-term project that cannot be done overnight.

Village is the basic unit of the socio-economic activities. It is greatly valuable to study rural land-use functions for rural revitalization on theory and practice levels. In this paper, the theory of village land use function change is theoretically explored, and the selection and measurement methods of village land use function evaluation unit are proposed. The influence mechanism of rural land use function change is analyzed. Taking Jiangjiayan Village in the suburbs of Chengdu as an example, this paper quantitatively analyzes the characteristics and dynamic changes of land use function in 2001, 2008 and 2018, and discusses the impact mechanism of land use change in typical villages. This paper proposes the enlightenment for rural revitalization, and provides theoretical and methodological references for the implementation of rural revitalization in the suburbs of the big city and the evaluation of land use function in the process. The main contents and results were summed as follows: (1) Land-use functions change due to changes in land-use types and patterns, which are indirectly affected by natural resource endowments, socio-economic conditions, and regional policies. Different types of rural land use have different change trends. The trend of land use function change is generally represented by traditional agricultural production, rural life, ecological transformation into modern industrial production function, multi-subject life service function and composite functions of different combinations. (2) Jiangjiayan has experienced three development stages since 2001, namely rural tourism development stage, land reclamation stage and ecological construction stage. Land-use functions in Jiangjiayan have become more diverse and complex: the production function transforms to production-ecology function, and the living function transforms to production-living function. (3) The changes of land-use functions in the suburb of metropolitan are results from such comprehensive influences as natural factors, location condition, industrial transformation, regional policies and land use subjects. It is suggested that multi-functionality of land use is an important way to upgrade the value of rural areas in the process of rural revitalization. Due to its unique location advantages, the suburbs of large cities can improve the functional value of rural land use production through land transfer, comprehensive land improvement and green industrial development, realize the multi-purpose use of land, and promote rural revitalization.

The advance of the Rural Revitalization Planning System and key technologies is critical for the implementation of rural revitalization strategy and urban-rural integration. This paper deeply analyzes the connotation and characteristics of Rural Revitalization Planning and the connections with that of other related plannings. A framework and key technologies for Rural Revitalization Planning are also developed in the study. Main findings indicate that: (1) the Rural Revitalization Planning should primarily concern the guidance towards the integration of the five goals for rural development from a macro perspective and, because of that, it would be strategic, forward-looking, unitary and comprehensive. (2) The guidance towards corresponding plans, particularly Territorial Space Planning, Industry Development Planning and Rural Construction Planning, should be largely addressed in the Rural Revitalization Planning according to current national strategies, notably the New Urbanization Planning and Major Function-Oriented Zone Planning. (3) In line with the three-level ("country-province-county") planning framework, the Rural Revitalization Planning could promote the rural revitalization strategy with the assistance of cross-regional planning under special goals. (4) We proposed a framework following “diagnosis for revitalization - goals for revitalization - special planning - guarantee” for the Rural Revitalization Planning, and the content of the Rural Revitalization Planning, as well as five goals for rural development and paths. (5) The application of key technologies, mainly including methods for the diagnosis of rural system, estimation of the capacity of resources and environment and identification of regional patterns, are profoundly suggested to approach the systematic regulations for Rural Revitalization Planning. The results are expected to promote researches on the theoretical system of the Rural Revitalization Planning and provide practical references for its applications across departments following current hierarchical administrative system.

Cities and villages are interdependent and complementary, both of which constitute the urban-rural man-earth regional system. However, the urban-rural development in China has faced various challenges. Aiming at the national strategy of rural revitalization, we think it necessary to construct rural regional multi-body system including urban-rural integration, rural complex, village-town organism, and housing-industry symbiosis and rural multi-level goal system including urban-rural infrastructure networks, zones of rural development, fields of village-town space and poles of rural revitalization. This study proposed an identification method of rural regional multi-body system, based on the theory of urban-rural integration system and rural regional system. The index system of urban-rural integration system included four dimensions of economic, social, environmental, and infrastructural development, and the index system of rural regional system included five sub-systems of population, society, economy, resource, and environment. Then, based on means square deviation method, multi-objective weighted sum model, and coupling coordination model, the rural multi-body system including urban-rural integration, rural complex, village-town organism, and housing-industry symbiosis can be identified. Taking Yanchi County of Ningxia as a case study, we applied our proposed identification method. It was found that compared with other regions of Ningxia, the overall urban-rural integration level of Yanchi County was relatively high, but its urban-rural integration level in the aspects of social and infrastructure development was relatively low. Meanwhile, the area of Yanchi County can be divided into different rural development regions, i.e. agricultural region, industrial region, commercial region, and ecological region. In addition, the towns and villages with high rural regional comprehensive development level and housing-industry coordination level were identified as village-town organism and housing-industry symbiosis, respectively. The empirical results showed that the analysis can basically reflect the development characteristics and orientation of different towns and villages. Different from previous research focusing on the hierarchical structure of urban system, this study provides a method to analyze the hierarchical differences within the rural regional system, which has certain reference value to guide the rural revitalization practices at the county level.

With the implementation of rural vitalization strategy, China has stepped into a critical period with the dramatic changes of urban-rural relations and the accelerating transformation development of rural territorial system. Scientifically understanding the research progress of urban-rural relation theory and evolution rule is of great significance for boosting rural vitalization, narrowing urban-rural disparity, adjusting urban-rural structure and optimizing urban-rural patterns. This paper elaborates the research progress of urban-rural relations and rural development in China from the dimensions of economy, society, ecology and culture based on the review of foreign urban-rural relations and the characteristics of domestic rural development, as well as the evolution of urban-rural relation. Furthermore, prospect of research focus or key fields in the future were given. Firstly, transforming the development idea from productivism oriented to post-productivism oriented and attaching importance to the multiple values of rural areas should be emphasized. Therefore, it is necessary to carry out intensive studies about the mechanism, regional path selection and development mode of rural vitalization based on the theory of rural multiple function transition. Understanding the relationship of different functions is essential for dealing with rural decline and realizing the comprehensive vitalization. Meanwhile, we should focus on the mechanism and format of rural vitalization based on different territorial types. Against the context of rural-urban integrated development, we should promote the supply-side reform and activate the forces of socio-economic growth in underdeveloped areas. As for the developed rural areas, the “hybridity” should be emphasized and further studies should be conducted. In some rural areas, the phenomenon of the hybridity of development agents, the combination of production space and living space, the mixture of rurality and modernism have emerged. Accordingly, more emphasis should be placed on the heterogeneity and diversity in the process of rural restructuring. Secondly, with the emergence of new factors or new technologies, we should focus on the new morphology of rural development, such as characteristic towns, rural complex and “Taobao village”. In recent years, China's rural areas have undergone intensive restructuring motivated by e-commerce, which has triggered a new wave of rural rejuvenation. But how e-commerce affects rural development and the characteristics of this process are still unclear, and this is important for understanding the urban-rural relations under the context of informatization. Thirdly, the mechanism and format of urban-rural spatial restructuring should be emphasized. From the perspective of urban-rural interaction, the theory of urban-rural network may be practical and meaningful for optimizing the spatial distribution of infrastructure construction and industrial development. Lastly, creating or improving the theory and improving the path of rural vitalization according to the national conditions are meaningful for realizing the strategy.

Rural decline is a global phenomenon as the world endeavors to promote its urbanization and industrialization. China has been one of such countries which experienced rapid urbanization development while its countryside is suffering depopulation and the related challenges such as labor shortage, economic recession and land abandonment which are referred as the hollowing-out villages. Rural decline is not solely existing in China. Generally, the current developed countries such as the US, Sweden, UK and France etc. all experienced rural decline while the states took measures and produced policies to revitalize the countryside. In 2017, the Chinese Central Government initiated its rural revitalization strategy which covers a period until 2050. How to implement this strategy? What experiences from the world can be borrowed to China? The paper aims to investigate typical cases from abroad and draw experiences which may be applied in China. By referring to cases from Germany, Japan and Sweden, the paper introduces separately the roles of rural land consolidation, special industry development and social capital cultivation in coordinating human-land relationship, improving endogenous capability and constructing new rural subjects. The analysis finds that these measures have contributed to the coupling development of rural people, land and industries. The enlightenments lie in three aspects. First, land consolidation optimizes rural production, living and ecology spaces and provides rural development with a platform through which local industries can develop by inputting resources. Second, local stakeholders' initiatives and the development of new rural subjects are the key elements to improve villages' endogenous capability. Third, the good values, trust, responsibility and social networks contribute to the cohesion and synergy of rural society and improve the production efficiency of the rural inputs of physical capital and human capital. The paper further discusses the applicability of these experiences in China. It points out that China has large territory and villages differ a lot in resources endowments, development stages, advantages and disadvantages. It is necessary to investigate the current situation of rural system of different areal types, and to figure out the suitable ways to deal with problems and challenges so as to revitalize the countryside. And in this process, the endogenous development and local peasants' initiatives are important to achieve sustainable rural development in the long run.

The Report of the 19th CPC National Congress has put forward the strategy of rural revitalization, which pays more attention to villagers' needs and subjective initiatives. This provides an opportunity to change status quo of rural planning which lacks community participation. While most current researches concerning the improvement of community involvement in rural planning are focused on the maturing of planning methods and techniques, little attention is paid to the motivations and abilities to participation of villagers. However, there are specific challenges for rural community participation in China, especially, most villagers are ignorant, diffident and lack of responsibilities to participate. The Empowerment Theory, which was proposed by an American sociological researcher in the 1970s, offers a new perspective in stimulating initiatives and powers of vulnerable groups and improving their abilities to participate. However, there are still short of domestic relevant experimental studies. Taking the experiment in Chenzhuang Village, which has implemented community participation in its planning as a case, and from the perspective of villagers' behaviors, this study has carried out 84 fieldworks in three and a half years, and adopted participatory observations, non-structured interviews, and questionnaire surveys to collect information and data about behaviors of villagers, local government officials, and rural planners during the whole process. Firstly, this research described the empowerment process of Chenzhuang planning and analyzed its empowering strategies applied in different planning stages. Secondly, the study tried to measure the changes of community involvement behaviors through three groups of indicators, namely situation selection of ways to participate, the width and depth of engagement in community activities and organizations. Finally, this paper explored the action path of empowerment on community participation behavior via mediating variables, namely perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors of concerning actors. The results are as follows: (1) Chenzhuang planning has adopted diverse empowering methods in different planning stages according to their differentiated community participation goals and has achieved to implement high-intensity information, education, and institutional empowerment on the rural community. (2) The rural residents who actually have taken steps to participate in rural planning are slightly smaller than those who have expressed their willingness to participate in simulated situation; however, the rate of community participation still keeps high at a level of 63%. In the meantime, villagers' initiatives to engage and their abilities have been promoted rapidly. They have been driven by responsibilities instead of self-interest only, which has facilitated community collective action. The depth of community participation has been continuously strengthened. (3) Thanks to being given information and knowledge through empowerment, the villagers set up confidence and responsibilities to participate, which has changed their cognition of, emotion for and interaction with community planning, development and themselves. Furthermore, this has promoted villagers' participation motivations and abilities.

By analyzing the dissipative structure characteristics of rural production space system, and establishing system entropy model using correlation entropy and running entropy, this study establishes an index system following three elements: the subjects of rural production space system (the multiple subjects), the objects (the land), and the environment. Then, taking Longshi Town in Hechuan district in Chongqing as an example, this study discusses the order of internal structure and the order of running state of rural production space system. The results show the following aspects. The correlation entropy of the rural production space system of the study area increased first and then decreased, with its internal structure presenting a periodic characteristic from disordering to ordering. From 2008 to 2011, the system internal structure tended to be chaotic and disordered, resulting in irregular urban expansion and extensive land use. From 2011 to 2015, driven by the strengthened financial support to agriculture, the improvement of agricultural input-output level, the enhancement of ecological restoration and so on, the system internal structure gradually entered the stage of orderly development. From 2008 to 2015, the running entropy of rural production space system decreased year by year, which showed a law of continuous ordering. This phenomenon is attributed to the industrial structure adjustment as well as the production conditions improvement brought by the substantially increased investment of comprehensive agricultural development. Therefore, centering on the evolution law of the internal structure and running state of rural production space system, this study puts forward strategies from the land use structure optimization, the modern agricultural industry system construction, the planning preparing and perfection, and the rise of new industries and new types of business. Hereby, rural production space system is expected to develop towards orderly and healthy way.

China’s agricultural competitiveness is weak and agricultural development is hence related to agricultural and rural modernization. The research applies the ‘element-structure-function’ analysis framework to discuss the theoretical basis of China’s agricultural development and industrial prosperity, and to analyze the characteristics, influencing factors and development paths of China’s agricultural development. The results indicate that: (1) Agriculture and rural areas have shifted from emphasizing on agricultural production and social stability to incorporating many functions including product supply, social stability, cultural heritage and ecological conservation. The multi-functional nature of agriculture supports the foundation and the broad space for agricultural development of China. (2) The main theoretical options to promote agricultural development are division of labor based on comparative advantage, increasing agricultural added value by product differentiation, resolving market failures by strengthening government support, and promoting the coordinated relationship among “people”, “land” and “industry”. (3) During the development process of China’s agriculture, the sense of gaining of indirect stakeholder is stronger than that of farmers, and meanwhile, it faces bottlenecks such as low agricultural labor productivity. (4) Considering the multi-functional nature and reality of agriculture, we provide some recommendations to improve China’s agricultural development and industrial prosperity. These includes practically shifting the focus of China’s agricultural development from production increase to quality and efficiency improvement, promoting the integrations between production and towns as well as production and villages, establishing a functional mechanism of agricultural factors and a “accessible, retainable, and beneficial” distribution mechanism of production factors, and increasing the pertinence, coordination and linkage of supportive agricultural policies.

The strategy of rural revitalization proposed at the 19th CPC National Congress is an inevitable choice to adapt to the changes of major social contradictions in China. The development of rural tourism is an important path to realize this great strategy. Through the dimensional deconstruction and dynamic mechanism analysis of the rural revitalization and rural tourism system, this paper analyzes the relationship between the two and the mechanism of action, and defines the coupling system of rural revitalization and rural tourism. Taking Fenghuang County, western Hunan Province as a case study, we constructed the evaluation index systems of rural revitalization and rural tourism. According to the panel data from 2001 to 2017, the comprehensive evaluation index, coordination degree and coordination development degree were calculated respectively. On this basis, the coupling process of rural revitalization and rural tourism system in Fenghuang County is divided into three stages, and the characteristics of the three stages are analyzed. The evolution process of the coupling system between rural revitalization and rural tourism is analyzed according to the evolution speed function and the "scissors difference", which reflects the changing trend of the two. The research shows that the interaction and interaction in the evolution process of rural revitalization and rural tourism system can be summarized as the coupling development process of pressure-embedding, adjustment and coordination, and the coupling evolution process reflects the cause-and-effect driving mechanism of cause-result-countermeasures. On this basis, the paper summarizes the realization path of rural revitalization and rural tourism, and puts forward that the design of policy system should be based on the evolution law and mechanism of rural revitalization and rural tourism system, and guide the coordinated development of the system by means of combining macro regulation and market regulation.

The rural revitalization strategy has been an important decision deployment to solve the issues concerning agriculture, rural areas and farmers in the new era. This paper puts forward the following points. (1) The basic path direction of rural revitalization strategy is to realize integrated development of urban and rural areas under rural differentiation principle; the main driving force is building urban-rural integration institutional system and reforming rural land system. (2) Rural revitalization is a dynamic process with flowing and choosing profession freely for urban-rural residents, utilizing efficiently rural resources and space, optimizing the pattern of town’s residential and industrial spaces, and investing continuously social and enterprise capital. While rural homestead system reform can promote the essential factors such as labor, land, industries and capital to flow and integrate quickly. So it can be the main grip for rural revitalization strategy. (3) Rural homestead system reform must achieve four goals, which are guaranteeing the residence right of peasants, controlling scale of rural homestead, endowing the property rights for peasants, and enlivening the usage rights of homestead. However, the pilot reform still has some argument points on the general approach that restrict the reform process. (4) Under the guidance of rural revitalization, rural homestead system reform should make greater breakthroughs on free flow of usage rights, use conversion of rural homestead, space replacement of homestead qualification right, and effective cohesion for qualification identifying and compensated use.

Since the reform and opening-up, industrialization and urbanization in China have developed rapidly, and a large number of young and middle-aged workers, which migrate from rural to urban areas, exacerbating the population aging in rural China, which poses great challenges to rural sustainable development. Human activity is the decisive factor in socioeconomic development. Therefore, to promote the implementation of rural revitalization strategy, it is of great significance to scientifically analyze the evolution of aging population in rural China. This study examines the spatio-temporal pattern and mechanism of rural population aging in rural China at county level through standard deviational ellipse (SDE), exploratory spatial data analysis and multivariable linear regression (MLR). Then it discusses the countermeasures for rural revitalization under the background of population aging. Results showed that rural China entered the aging stage in 1999 and the ratio of population aged 65 and above increased from 7.50% in 2000 to 10.06% in 2010. In 2000 and 2010, rural aging population was concentrated to the southeast side of Heihe-Tengchong Line and maintained the spatial pattern of "northeast-southwest". Specifically, the rural areas of 48.26% of the total number of counties did not enter the aging stage in 2000, which were mainly distributed in western and northeastern China as well as Jiangxi and eastern Hubei of central China; while there were only 404 counties with the aging level of rural population less than 7.00% in 2010, most of them were located in the Greater Khingan Range area and to the northwest side of Heihe-Tengchong Line. Furthermore, regression results indicated that normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), mortality, number of beds in health institutions per thousand people, educational attainment and per capita disposable income of rural households were positively correlated with the aging level of rural population, while net outflow rate of rural population, natality, urbanization rate, ratio of minority, elevation and per capita GDP showed a negative correlation. Population aging is an irreversible trend. To realize modernization of agriculture and the countryside, we should promote the development of new-type urbanization and intra-county economy and construct the mechanism for urban-rural integration and sustainable development. Besides, we should gradually liberate the birth control and reduce the risk exposure of rural population, which help to slow down the development of population aging and provide supports for rural revitalization.

Rural Revitalization Strategy is a major innovation in the theory and practice of modern rural development which aims to solve China’s rural “five trends” (i.e., five major problems). These are: the rapid non-agricultural conversion of agricultural production factors, the excessively fast aging and weakening of agricultural social subjects, the increasing empty-disuse of village construction land, the severe pollution and damage of rural water-soil environment, and the deep impoverishment of poverty-stricken rural areas. Rural revitalization mode and path analysis is an important research content. Due to the variety of China’s rural types, it is necessary to make rural development strategy and summarize the mode of rural revitalization on the basis of zoning and classifying the characteristics of different regions. In this context, this research firstly measures the urban-rural transformation in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region from the population-land-industry perspective based on space analytic geometry, and then develops different functional zones by using trajectory analysis method. Then modes of rural revitalization are summarized for each functional zone to provide theoretical reference for Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region’s rural revitalization. The results are as follows: (1) This study area is divided into four functional zones according to the characteristics of urban-rural transformation, i.e., dominant transition area, key transition area, potential transition area and restricted transition area. (2) The rural revitalization modes in the dominant transition area mainly include pulling mode of rural tourism in suburban areas and development mode of multifunctional agriculture in suburbs; the ones in the key transition area mainly include rural e-commerce driving mode, land consolidation driving mode and pastoral complex development mode; the ones in the potential transition area mainly include industrial enterprises driving mode, agricultural industrialization driving mode and eco-cultural tourism development mode; the ones in the restricted transition area mainly include development model of characteristic ecological agriculture and “Relocation+” mode. (3) It is the focus and difficulty to explore the path of rural revitalization for the further research. It is important to form an evaluation scale of rural development by constructing a series of indicator systems and then to calculate the rural revitalization degree to clarify the status and potential of the villages. We hope these findings could provide research ideas and technical support for exploring the rural revitalization modes in China’s other regions.

Illustrating the dialectical relationship between rural off- farm employment, farmers' income growth and agricultural and rural development, and constructing regional modes of rural revitalization are of great significance for orderly promoting urbanization, and realizing the prosperity of farmers’ living and rural revitalization. This article first divides the counties of Beijing- Tianjin- Hebei Region into five types of region: Beijing and Tianjin suburban region (I), Northeast Hebei region (II), Central Hebei Plain region (III), Taihang Mountains region (IV) and Bashang region (V). Then it measures the spatial effect of rural off-farm employment on farmers' income growth by using panel data of the counties of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region and Spatial Regression Model. Finally, this paper refines the regional modes of rural revitalization in the study region. The results show that: (1) from 2000 to 2016, the rural per capita net income increased from 2486 yuan to 11920 yuan, while the rate of rural off-farm employment rose from 38.9% to 57.5%; the order of the rate of rural off- farm employment in five types of region was I>III>II>IV>V, and the order of the rural per capita net income was I>II>III>IV>V; (2) the rural off-farm employment effectively promotes the farmers' income growth; the process of rural off-farm employment leads to the change of farmers' income structure showing a trend of shift from one to another: the stronger the role of off- farm employment income in farmers' income growth, the weaker the role of agricultural income in farmers' income growth; every unit increase of the rate of rural off-farm employment leads to 9.215 units increase of farmers’ income; the elasticity coefficients of the rate of rural off-farm employment to farmers’ income are 29.986, -23.605, -10.388, and 9.951 in I, II, III, and V region, respectively, and there is no significant relationship between them in IV region; (3) according to the characteristic, mechanism and future development trend of rural off-farm employment and farmers' income growth in different regional types, four regional modes of rural revitalization in this region are refined, namely, stable employment + agriculture - commerce- industry dominated type, concurrent operation + modern agriculture dominated type, employment export + compound featured agriculture dominated type, employment export + compound ecological agriculture - tourism dominated type. Finally, this article puts forward the guarantee mechanism of rural off-farm employment and talent cultivation and industrial integration in order to promote the positive interaction between rural off-farm employment and farmers' income growth.

Rural and urban areas are continuous space. Under the influence of urbanization and industrialization, rural areas have been experiencing constant transformation and restructuring. It is important to understand what kind of transition has happened in rural areas and how the rural areas have been changed. Consequently, we need to explore the process of rural transformation and summarize some typical models. In this way, we can provide some successful experience to promote rural transformation and revitalization. Suburban areas are located in the fringe of city and countryside, where the urbanization and rurality are intersected with each other. Compared with the rural hinterland, suburban areas have more advantages to realize rural transformation due to its special position. In order to figure out the process of rural transformation in suburban areas, we take a case study of Huaming Township to clarify its development path to realize urban-rural integration. Our research shows that the rural transformation of Huaming Township could be summarized as “Three Integration Models”, including space restructuring, industrial restructuring and organization restructuring. Firstly, the government purchased the rural construction land and implemented land reclamation, and local villagers moved into relocated buildings with decent compensation. Then the agricultural park and industrial park were constructed to develop facility agriculture and equipment manufacturing industry. In addition, some innovations occurred in the economic sector. For example, the rural collective economy was transformed into stocking system economy, villagers assembled their spare capital and initiated a village bank, so that farmers can acquire more profits and earn more money. The industrial park also abandoned some traditional dirty industry and introduced some advanced environmental industry in order to promote the local industrial structure. As for the social management, the government reformed the household registration system and grassroots organizations, transforming village committee into neighborhood committee and providing the same social insurance for villagers as citizens. Furthermore, the township integrated all law enforcement agencies into one team, so villagers can enjoy more convenient public service. With the adjustment of economic structure and relocation of rural space, Huaming Township has achieved coordinated development. However, this kind of development path like Huaming Township resulted in disappearance of traditional rural settlements, and it also needs strong financial and political foundation. Therefore, the Huaming model is only appropriate for those villages where residents are more inclined to nonagricultural employment and urban lifestyle.

This paper systematically reviews the evolution of rural development and major regional models in the Pearl River Delta Region, within the context of a rural revitalization strategy. This review provides solid scientific bases for the selection of rural development and revitalization strategies in China. Rural development in the Pearl River Delta has experienced four stages. The first stage, called “traditional rural development”, took place before 1978. In response to international market demands, a large amount of farmland was converted into ponds, for the cultivation of rice and mulberry: the land started to be cultivated intensively and the “mulberry-dike-fish-pond complex” gradually formed, showing the traditional agricultural landscape. The second stage (1978-2000) was driven by industrialization. In the context of two international industrial transfers, foreign investments have been acquired by township enterprises; additionally, the bottom-up approach to industrialization and urbanization gradually created a functional structure known as “living + agricultural production + industrial production. ” The “de-villagization” of industry promoted a continuous differentiation of the rural space: it resulted in plaque-like industrial and urban spaces, planar-like agricultural production spaces, and point-like rural living spaces. The third stage (2000-2008) saw the coexistence of urbanization and metropolitanization. Government-led urban land developments and new investments in infrastructure construction, gradually transformed the Pearl River Delta region into an urban-rural “large cluster, small scatter” area. The fourth stage, a period of rapid transformation and rural under-urbanization, started in 2008 and still continues at present: the Pearl River Delta metropolitan area has undergone a process of rapid construction, the urban and rural systems have been gradually integrated and networked, and the industrial development of rural areas has diversified. The presence of fragmented informal space has led to the formation of mosaic-like spatial patterns under metropolitan area. Based on the differences in externalities and endogenous factors at different locations, the rural development models in the Pearl River Delta region can be classified into city, suburbs, and far-suburbs. In conclusion, external environmental changes and internal factors (i.e., differentiation, reconstruction) seem to directly affect the direction and modality of rural development and revitalization.