A two-storey villa would have been impossible for hog raiser Wang Quan without the joint reconstruction policy in Dujiangyan, one of the cities hardest hit by last year's May 12 earthquake. Wang's house in Chaping village became too dangerous to live in after the 8-magnitude quake.

"I wouldn't be able to afford to build such a house in 10 years, but now, without paying anything, I'm living in a villa," Wang says.

When he learned from the village committee in June that the Chengdu municipal government issued a policy which encouraged people from the city to jointly build homes with quake-hit farmers, Wang immediately thought of Zhang Zhonggui.

Zhang, a client of his hoggery business, had said that he wanted to build a house on Wang's rural housing land in the picturesque Mt. Qingcheng area, but the law prohibited him from doing so. Now with the new policy, there is a chance, Wang says.

Under China's existing land ownership structure, urban land is owned by the state while rural land is owned by the rural collective. The collective, often a village committee, distributes land-use rights to households. Rural land includes farmland and rural construction land for housing, township enterprises and public structures. Farmers are allowed to transfer their rural housing land use rights to other members within the rural collective.

"The policy is basically saying that I give up some of my rural housing land to investors who in return will build a new home for me," said Wang.

So he contacted Zhang, who agreed to invest 500,000 yuan (US$75,000) right away to build two two-storey villas on Wang's 232 square meters of land.

Wang moved into his new house with his wife, daughter and uncle in October. His house has a floor area of 132 square meters, with 242 square meters of building area. The house cost Zhang 280,000 yuan.

The rest of Wang's land, or 100 square meters, was given to Zhang's new country guesthouse which has 170 square meters of building area. Zhang plans to receive tourists to Mt. Qingcheng.

But the legal footing behind the policy is more complicated than Wang's initial understanding.

The biggest problem for reconstruction in Dujiangyan is funding, says Luo Zhaopeng, director of the city's Urban and Rural Planning Department.

The homes of about 130,000 rural families were destroyed or damaged in the earthquake in Dujiangyan. About one third of these families need to rebuild and the rest need reinforcement. "Housing reconstruction will cost more than 10 billion yuan," says Luo.

Attracting urban investors will help solve the funding problem, he says. "But there were many policy restrictions when we initiated this practice to help the quake-hit farmers rebuild their homes."

Under China's Land Administration Law, rural collective land use rights cannot be sold, transferred or leased for non-rural use.

"This means that the law does not forbid the transfer of rural collective construction land use right for tourism or service except property development," Luo says.

Since rural housing land use rights can only be transferred within the village collective, the village collective must redesignate the part of the rural housing land agreed by farmers and investors as rural collective construction land, making it transferable for investors, Luo says.

Individual investors or companies can use the land to run service businesses such as guesthouses or restaurants.

"Through this process, rural housing land becomes part of collective construction land which can be transferred legally," says Wu Jianling, of Chengdu University's Urban and Rural Development Center.

Both Zhang and Wang got two certificates: property ownership certificates and land use right certificates. For Zhang, it is the collective rural construction land use right valid for 40 years. With the two certificates, Zhang will be able to sell his property on the market. But Wang cannot sell his because his certificate is rural housing land use right, which cannot be sold on the market.

"I feel that I've benefited a lot. I got a two-storey villa without paying anything," Wang says. He admits he feels it's a bit unfair that he cannot sell his house. "It's not that I want to sell it and move to the city, the air here on the mountain is so much better."

Zheng Houpu, a villager from Weijiang village, has other concerns. His village has agreed to cooperate with a Beijing-based company to jointly build homes for quake survivors.

Shi Lin, general manager of Beijing Haohai Lide Tech Co. Ltd., agreed to build homes for 19 families in Weijiang village, with a building area of 43 square meters per person. The steel structured houses near Mt. Qingcheng have wooden floors, fully fitted kitchens and bathrooms.

The company has invested 10 million yuan in the reconstruction of farmers' houses, says Shi, of which 4 million was used to build roads, water pipes, electricity lines and sewage system. Shi will also pay each household the market price of 400 kilograms of rice each year.

In return, the company will get about 200,000 square meters of land to build a hotel in the mountain woodlands.

Shi is confident of the tourism prospects at this picturesque mountain and the company plans to invest 30 million yuan in the hotel project.

"I had my concerns at the beginning because the policy was not very clear," Shi says. "What if, after we invest the money, the government says it is illegal?"

Villager Zheng Houpu worries that the company might fail and be unable of paying the price of 400 kilograms of rice.

Han Jun, director of the State Council Development Research Centre's Rural Economy Department, says such practices are unsuitable for other rural areas.

Han, who has just returned from doing research on countryside policies in Japan, says that the restriction of rural land is even tighter in Japan. "Japanese farmers are not allowed to sell their rural homes to city people and there is no way urban people can build houses on rural housing land."

Han thinks that such practices might trigger disputes in the future, but "since we are dealing with the quake zones, the situation is different."

Luo Zhaopeng says land use rights should be freely transferred as long as the use of the land is not changed. "We shouldn't worry too much that once the farmers sell their rural housing land or farmland, they will have no place to live in or nothing to eat," he says. "Instead we should give them enough freedom and let them decide what to do with their land. The key point is to improve the social security system for the farmers."

"We are dealing with a different situation here in the quake zone, it's possible that we will make mistakes, or even clash with other policies."

(Xinhua News Agency May 11, 2009)