When I rode a shared bike along a riverside path, which is flanked by paddy fields on one side and waterborne plants on the other, on January 8, I didn’t immediately realize I was in the same Shanghai village I had visited nearly three years ago.

I thought I was rambling in some sort of country resort where one could enjoy enchanting bird chirps and the soothing sound of rustling reeds. Part of the newly built waterfront path is made of antiseptic wood, so when I rode on it, it produced a pleasant rhythmic sound.

As I rode along, however, I came across a familiar riverside home for the rural elderly, an unmistakable landmark of Shanshen Village, which literally means a village tucked away in deep mountains. Although there are no mountains around, the poetic name did properly depict the once-secluded nature of the village, which had been inaccessible to most for a long time for lack of infrastructural improvement.

I remembered that when I drove to the village about three years ago, I had to park my car outside the village and then walked slowly and cautiously along rough littered country roads.

At that time, walking in the village, I could see trucks and cranes moving on the construction sites of Huawei Technologies’ new R&D center across the Beihenggang River. With few riverside trees or bushes as possible shelter against the winter cold, I found myself exposed to intermittent harsh winds as I trudged along the rough roads.

Some local farmers, who were removing roadside grass while planting flower pots along the unpaved roads, told me vaguely that things would get better in a few years, but they didn’t know exactly how things would pan out. They didn’t know (nor did I), for example, that Shanghai’s Metro Line 17 would extend westward to add a stop near the village, or a bucolic 43-kilometer riverside pedestrian and cyclist path would pass through the village.

Nor did they know that a new footbridge would be built to link Huawei’s compound with the village, or a major investment firm in Shanghai would help spruce up the village, so that a more enjoyable rural landscape would mesh with the eco-friendly environment of Huawei’s huge R&D center.

Nearly three years ago, I had to drive over one hour to reach the then secluded village. Earlier this month, however, it took me about 50 minutes to arrive at the village, and I did it with much lower carbon footprints — I took the subway first and then took a shared bike at the new station at Xicen in Jinze Town, suburban Qingpu District.

All of a sudden, the once-secluded and rustic village has become a “back garden” of Huawei and a potential venue for triathlon and marathon events. The formal opening of Metro Line 17’s Xicen Station on November 30 has brought the village to the doorsteps of many urban residents. Rent a shared bike at the exit of Xicen Station, and you will arrive at the village in about 15 minutes.

“Many farmers in the village have rented their revamped homes to Huawei staff,” a 62-year-old security guard surnamed Bao told me. He was on duty to guard the western gate of a huge country park known for its well-preserved wetlands and waterborne fir trees.

He added: “I live in a nearby village and I’ve also rented two rooms to two staff members from Huawei. They moved in last December. One of my neighbors, who lives in another apartment in town, has rented his three-story rural house, which has more than 10 rooms in total, to Huawei staff. His monthly rental income from the house alone is close to 20,000 yuan (US$2,728).”

The sea change in Shanshen in three years, in terms of rural landscape and farmers’ income, attests to the importance of infrastructural improvement in China’s rural revitalization drive.

In 2022, the Yangtze River Delta Investment (Shanghai) Co Ltd participated in a project involving an investment of 860 million yuan to spruce up Shanshen Village’s infrastructure and rural residential houses. About the same year, work began on a 4.2km riverside pedestrian and cyclist path, mainly encompassing the village. It has largely been completed and is part of a 43km riverside path to be completed by the year’s end, benefiting villages nearby.

Although it’s only a bridge apart from Huawei’s R&D compound, Shanshen is not the only major beneficiary of a symbiotic rural-urban landscape. Lianhu Village, which literally means a village by a lotus lake, has also come under the limelight lately for having become another “back garden” of Huawei, whose new R&D center began to operate toward the end of last year.

“Fifteen farmers’ houses, with 60 rooms in total, have been rented by Huawei staff,” You Jian, an official of Lianhu Village, told me earlier this month.

Huawei is part of a bigger story of scientific and technological development at the heart of the Yangtze River Delta region. To the west of Huawei’s center, another scientific and technological innovation zone is rising, extending urban infrastructure further westward to mesh with more and more local rural landscapes.

Another day, I rode a shared bike to Cenbu Village, about 3km to the west of Huawei, and found many office and residential apartments had just been completed at this innovation zone that borders Cenbu. Sports and cultural facilities will also be built in the zone.

Seeing that a group of young people was enjoying afternoon tea and coffee and card games in the rustic courtyard of a rural cafe in Cenbu Village, I ordered a cup of coffee made with a special ingredient: dried osmanthus fragrans collected from the village.

The owner of the Uncle Mao Xun Cafe is a lady just over 20 years old. She hails from Guangdong Province and has been running the cafe business in Cenbu for four years.

“Business is fine, as many urban visitors like to relax in a rural setting during weekends. And we’ve become a country hub of cyclists and motorists as well,” she said.

Talking about the innovation center, she said she believes it will bring more potential customers to her rural cafe.

As I rode into Cenbu Village, I noticed that a new passenger railway line linking Shanghai and Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces was being built right across the village. In effect, the village will be seated between two stations when the railway line is completed by 2026.

Extending infrastructural developments to the countryside, a policy reaffirmed at the Central Rural Work Conference held last December, goes a long way toward reviving the country’s villages. During my field studies, I could see how infrastructural investment has benefited the rural economy and life.

In the 1980s and 1990s, township enterprises arose across the country as a driving force behind rural growth, in addition to traditional agricultural investment. A side effect, however, was the emergence of many small processing factories that somehow polluted the rural environment.

In the ongoing drive to revitalize the rural economy and life, the once-polluting township plants have gradually been replaced by pastoral landscapes restored or recreated with the help of eco-conscious designers and planners.

In Songze Village, dubbed the “root” of Shanghai where some of the city’s “firsts” were discovered, including the first well and the first village, cracked and unkempt cement roads have been redesigned and rebuilt to become eco-friendly garden paths, and a 100-year-old rural house has been converted into a cafe with much of its original structure intact.

“Although we are open on a trial basis, there are already many customers at weekends,” said the cafe manager surnamed Liu.

Infrastructural improvement in Songze is not restricted to roads or houses. A huge archeological forest park has taken shape here, a meeting point of history and reality where visitors can walk or sit on the same soil where our ancestors lived 6,000 years ago.

An accessible countryside, made possible by rural infrastructural improvements based on environmentally conscious designs, is a boon for both city dwellers and rural residents.

In the long run, a rural-urban continuum will help better define the path to sustainable growth.