A Probe Into The Orientation And Strategies Of Constructing Central Village In North Fujian Mountain Area

North Fujian mountain villages are mostly scattered, with accelerated industrialization and urbanization of the area, their function and spatial structure has undergone great changes. A research on central village construction is theoretically and practically valued both in developing urban/rural area and building a socialist new countryside. Great attention has been drawn in exploring central village construction from different aspects, both at home and abroad. Central place theory and the practice of central villages in UK, Japan and Korea is comparatively influential. However, research on central village began relatively late in China. It is not until 1990s has a number of scholars raised village construction theory, and then the practice of constructing central villages began in some developed areas of China.The idea of central village is to explore regional development. It is different from the development of towns, administrative villages and villages of the administrative divisions. North Fujian is a mountainous area and villages of the area are mostly scattered, small-scaled, less planned and low functional. It is important to find a way to solve new problems and develop this area. In 2007, the author accompanied the mayor of Nanping City to investigate 10 counties (cities, districts) in Nanping, north Fujian and collected their development data since 1990. This study is based on authentic and extensive data of the investigation. It employs SWOT, correlation analysis and charts in analyzing data and highlights its conclusion by deliberations of authentic cases. It systematically shows the developing status of North Fujian villages, the advantages and barriers in constructing central village in this area, and the opportunities and challenges in front of us. Moreover, it explores the strategic orientation of building central village centering SO strategy, WO strategy, ST strategy and WT strategy. The author suggests that five major steps have to be done in building new central villages, they are mainly:(1) plan first; (2) reinforce infrastructure; (3) optimize village environment; (4) facilitate land exchange; (5) explore new management system.The research is hoped to yield meritorious implications for the construction of central village in North Fujian mountain area in according to its local conditions and characteristics.