Ｌｏｎｇｇａｎｇ：Ｃｈｉｎａ’ｓ Ｆｉｒｓｔ Ｃｉｔｙ ｏｆ Ｆａｒｍｅｒｓ

Reform over the past 30 years has not only changed the lives of millions of ordinary people， but also put a lot of nameless places on the map of China. Longgang in Cangnan， Wenzhou is one of these places that have been put on the map of the country’s accomplished reform.

Although Longgang Town was officially set up in October， 1983， it actually started around 1978 before the epoch-making third plenary session of the 11th central committee of the CPC. Encouraged by the new livelihood policies adopted at the plenary session， small family businesses engaged in producing plates and signs， textile and plastics mushroomed in villages around today’s Longgang and people soon became relatively well off. They began to dream of an urban life.

When Longgang was officially set up as a township in October， 1983， it was actually a district of fishing villages with a population of 6，039 and a large expanse of tideland. With one secretary and one telephone， the town was the smallest government in Cangnan County. Across the river was Aojiang， a very old and very prosperous town.

Chen Dingmo， a party secretary in a neighboring district with 170，000 people in 141 villages， volunteered to lead the construction of Longgang. He said all he needed was preferential development policies.

The policies were more than preferential for development. They were unprecedented and unheard of. According to new policies， a farmer could become an urban resident in Longgang if he bought a patch of land and built a house or start a business in the new town. The preferential policies were also about public works and infrastructure. A team of some 40 people was organized to promote the new deal in neighboring regions. Southern Zhejiang News， a regional newspaper， reported on the new policy in detail on July 14， 1984.

The new deal started a storm in Pingyang and Cangnan counties and other neighboring counties. Farmers flocked into town for further information. In a few months， more than 20，000 farmers came from 10 counties of five provinces to place cash deposits. In 1984 more than 5，000 rural households applied to build houses in Longgang. The government became a bank of construction with all the cash deposits from these farmers.

Rows of houses and streets appeared. In 1986， the population grew to 30，000. By the end of the 1980s the population was over 100，000 and in the mid 1990s it was 150，000. The town flourished as its industrial output in 1990 was 232 million yuan， six years after it became a town with an industrial output of 4 million yuan. In 1995， Longgang was listed by the State Council as one of the pilot towns in the country for comprehensive reform.

Thus Longgang was recognized for its achievement and the pioneering role it played in the early urbanization， for it solved three major problems: population， finance and industrial development for new towns. However， Longgang was outshone by neighboring towns in economic development in the late 1990s. It dropped from number one to number five on the ranking of aggregate economic strength in Wenzhou.

Tang Baolin， now the party secretary of Longgang， knows what was wrong with town’s economy. He has been in Longgang for years， first as an entrepreneur and later as a member of the town leadership. He explained that the city attracted rural residents but did not offer adequate business opportunities and jobs. The city needed an industrial upgrade to change its industrial pattern of small businesses.

In March， 2003， Longgang dismantled the 10-year-old signboard proudly flaunting “China’s First City of Farmers” on National Highway 104. This was a decisive move to start anew and stop resting on laurels. The decision makers wanted to convert the city of farmers to a city of industries.

The new strategy has shown good results. In 2007， Longgang had a resident population of 280，000. Its industrialization and urbanization prospered. Today， the town has sixteen businesses whose individual output surpasses 100 million. And Longgang is back to be among the top three in the local ranking of aggregate economic power.□