There are more than 47,000 towns in China now and some of them are historic ones. Those historic towns are invaluable because they inherit ancient Chinese culture and the native people still keep their precious customs. Urban people yearn to relax themselves in those historic towns.

However, when traveling to these tourist spots becomes a hit, the purity of the historic towns and the valuable culture are broken down by economic benefits because of over-development. The peaceful life of the local people is destroyed as well. We have seen so many regrettable examples such as Zhouzhuang and Fenghuang. Meanwhile, we also witness many extraordinary historic town reconstruction projects such as Yunan Shaxi and Aman Fayun. Strong commercial atmosphere is not what we want to experience in these towns and instead, we need protective development and authentic renovation.

On the contrary of over-development, it’s the decline of villages. As the regional development of China imbalances and also with the acceleration of the urbanization, there are gaps between rural and urban places in economy, politics, culture, science and technology, and human resources. Serious loss of young labor force, low level of technology and lack of infrastructures and entertainment facilities are normal phenomenon in rural areas. Some of the areas are even devastating that people’s living standard falls behind. Therefore, rural areas in China have great potential and opportunities to be transformed and improved.

No matter where you are and where you are from, as long as you love Chinese culture, then you are more than welcomed to join us for 2013 L&A DESIGN STAR College Students Design Contest---DREAM TOWN. You get to decide which place in China you would like to reconstruct, it could be an unknown small town or even just a shabby village. If you take great care on your design and outstand your project without losing its historic values, you could be the winner of 2013 L&A DESIGN STAR College Students Design Contest!