A Roadside restaurant starts to flourish once more. [Cai Xiaochuan / San Lian Life Weekly]

Hongkou aims to build a tourist area focused on mountain sports. It is not satisfied with the role of a "backyard" where Chengdu citizens spend their leisure time, but has ambitions to train its sights on the national or even international market. Shanghai has invested 1,800 million yuan in the building of Puhong Road (from Puyang to Hongkou), the biggest aid program in the disaster-affected area, paving the way for Hongkou's further development.

In contrast to Tai'an Village's "unified plan, individual construction", Hongkou chose "unified plan and unified construction". 1,164 of its 1,500 households preferred this approach. The fact is that it would be unaffordable for most of the villagers here to build their own houses.

To convert the limited land resources to funds, Hongkou adopted the approach of "house for land". Statistics show that the per capita construction land in Hongkou is 0.58 mu. If each family offers 0.5 mu to the developer, a new house of the standard size of 35 square meters will be built for everyone; then the developers can start tourist programs on the land made available. A village hotel built by developers will be more lavish than a family hotel, thus promoting local tourism to flourish in an all round way.

According to the blueprint, scattered villages will be relocated in eleven permanent settlements to save more land for commercial use. Because state subsidies are limited, social funds are crucial for the rebuilding of Hongkou. Leaders of Hongkou are presently negotiating with developers. 500 to 600 million yuan of investment programs in Gaoyuan Village have been agreed so far.