Huzhou city, the birthplace of the concept that "lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets", has in recent years leveraged its ecological resources and urban-rural integration advantages to build a full-chain mechanism for attracting, nurturing, empowering and retaining young people.

The city, in East China's Zhejiang province, has continued to expand its pathways linking the younger generation, the new economy, new culture and new industries — fostering a virtuous cycle of a two-way commitment between young people and rural areas, as well as between the urban and rural factors of production.

"Formulating legislation on youth rural engagement is a concrete action to implement the decisions and deployments of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the requirements of the provincial Party committee. It is necessary to translate effective practices into local regulations, so as to build a solid institutional guarantee for young people to pursue their careers in Huzhou," said Sun Xianlong, secretary of the leading Party members group and chairman of the Standing Committee of the Huzhou Municipal People's Congress.

The Huzhou Municipal People's Congress Standing Committee has formulated and issued China's first local regulation specifically designed to support youth development in rural areas.

The regulation consists of 33 articles in six chapters, with key provisions on industrial guidance, employment and entrepreneurship, public services, and support and safeguards. Adopted at the 23rd session of the Standing Committee of the 14th Zhejiang Provincial People's Congress, it came into effect on May 20, marking that Huzhou's work on youth rural engagement has entered a new stage, shifting from policy incentives to law-based guarantees.

The regulation applies to young people aged 18 to 45 who take up employment and are actively engaged in innovation and entrepreneurship in districts and counties across Huzhou.

It clarifies youth rural engagement as young people playing their positive role in modern industrial development, new urbanization, comprehensive rural vitalization and primary-level governance — to promote the common prosperity of urban and rural areas and realize their own growth and development.

This consensus breaks the traditional dual structure that separates urban and rural areas. It means that as long as young people come to Huzhou — whether conducting technological research and development in Wuxing district or ecological farming in Changxing county — they all fall within the scope of "rural engagement" defined by the regulation.

"We are at a critical stage of moving from urban-rural integration to urban-rural convergence," Sun said.

"Legislation should not sever the intrinsic link between young people and urban-rural areas, but rather consolidate and advance the achievements of urban-rural integration," he added. "Whether you want to go to the city or the countryside, Huzhou welcomes you.”

In ancient Ganglang village in Nanxun district, old houses once stood vacant and the place fell silent.

After environmental remediation and whole-village operation, 38 new business forms such as handicraft art museums and natural dyeing studios have now taken root, with some 200 merchants creating 2,000 jobs.

This has helped residents achieve common prosperity and increased the collective income of the village.

This achievement would not have been possible without the youth return program initiated by Chen Yuanyuan, chief operator of Ganglang village.

The plan targeted young people in surrounding cities such as Shanghai and Hangzhou, and leveraged a “one-hour living circle” connected by high-speed rail.

As a result, the plan has attracted 78 young people who commute freely between urban and rural areas for work and life — transforming the village into an ideal habitat for young people in the Yangtze River Delta.

"Seven years ago when I started working in rural areas, young people faced a binary choice: city or countryside," Chen said.

"Today, thanks to institutional guarantees and optimized infrastructure, we have multiple options: Living in the city while working in the countryside, living in the countryside while working in the city or living and working in the countryside. Young people are now better positioned to embrace rural areas!" Chen added.

"Listening to young people" is the core principle of the regulation. "We must not only consider how the city develops, but also study with genuine commitment how to guarantee the development of young people," Sun said.

During the legislative process, the Standing Committee of the Huzhou Municipal People's Congress extensively solicited opinions and suggestions from all sectors of society.

Through various means, including establishing a WeChat group for youth representatives to share their views, distributing questionnaires and convening symposiums, over 6,000 suggestions were collected, which were thoroughly analyzed and incorporated into the regulation.

In addition to "listening," the regulation also strives to "respond" with care.

Centering on the goals of "having a career during work hours, a life after work, and a promising future," the regulation elevates supportive policies — which may change over time — into inclusive, consistent and predictable legal framework.

To ensure that young people have a career during work hours, the regulation dedicates a chapter to “development guidance”— fully opening up fields such as modern industries, sci-tech innovation, common prosperity and ecological civilization practice.

It requires local authorities at all levels to sort out information on innovation and entrepreneurship and make it public in a unified manner — shifting the model from youth searching for policies to policies reaching out to youth.

At the same time, it introduces entrepreneurship services to facilitate in-depth matching of information, resources, venues, supply and marketing, policies, financing and capacity building and to tailor growth plans for young entrepreneurs.

To make sure young people have a fulfilling life after work, the regulation clearly stipulates the implementation of a youth housing program, promoting policies such as home purchase and rental support and housing subsidies.

It also promotes access to high-quality and balanced urban and rural education and medical care, ensuring that children of non-local residents enjoy the same after-school care services, and facilitating more convenient cross-regional medical treatment for young people and their families.

The regulation also focuses on small but important matters such as daily necessities, travel, shopping, entertainment, education, medical care, marriage and social interactions, seeking to tangibly improve the living conditions of young people and to address their concerns.

It also emphasizes granting young people more political status, enabling them to play an important role in comprehensive rural vitalization.

To enable young people to pursue a promising career, the regulation promotes the establishment of youth entrepreneurship funds and sci-tech innovation funds, providing policy and financial support.

It implements diversified land supply policies to reduce land costs for youth entrepreneurship projects.

With a view to promoting youth entrepreneurship, the regulation provides for the systematic integration of policies on industry, investment, and finance — offering support such as free spaces and training.

It also includes dedicated provisions on land supply to meet the resource needs of young entrepreneurs.

At the same time, focusing on promoting youth employment, it makes specific institutional designs for full-process services ranging from career guidance, skills training to protection of labor rights and interests.

On June 10, at a deputy liaison station in Zhili town in Wuxing district, a face-to-face consultation event was held to collect opinion on a suggestion about better responding to youth concerns and building a preferred destination for youth rural engagement.

Representatives of young people who have come to live or work in rural areas shared their insights, while heads of relevant departments responded to their concerns.

The suggestion, jointly initiated by 13 deputies to people’s congresses, was listed as a key suggestion for 2026, the handling of which is supervised by Chen Hao, secretary of the Huzhou municipal Party committee.

According to statistics, in recent years, the city has launched 2,771 youth innovation and entrepreneurship projects in rural areas, cultivated more than 35,000 modern new farmers and over 2,680 agri-entrepreneurs and created more than 39,000 local jobs.

In 2025, the operating income of village collectives across the city exceeded 800,000 yuan — making youth rural engagement a highlight of Huzhou's high-quality development.

At present, Huzhou has developed a youth entrepreneurship support network covering the entire chain and all factors.

The Huzhou comprehensive service platform for youth rural engagement development has been launched, serving 60,000 participants.

The city has renovated and upgraded seven youth communities and more than 3,700 youth apartments, and helped resolve over 230 issues concerning schooling for the children of young people in rural areas and their housing needs.

With the implementation of the regulation, the development of young people in rural areas now enjoys an all-round legal protection, making it more institutionalized and law-based.

Sun said that the Huzhou Municipal People's Congress Standing Committee will take the implementation of the regulation as an opportunity to fully leverage the functions of the people's congress, help deliver tangible results in supporting youth rural engagement and development and drive Huzhou's urban-rural integration and all-round rural vitalization, so that the city can continue to lead the country and serve as a model in these areas.