With the socio-economic transformat

With the socio-economic transformation, regional development factors recombination and followed
industrial restructuring have changed the rural areas in eastern coastal China deeply. The interaction
between the material and non-material elements affecting rural production and lifestyles shaped
different rural development types depending on a carrier, which is composed of different industries.
Accordingly, this paper makes the definitions of four rural development types, i.e., farming industry
dominated rural development type (FIT), industry dominated rural development type (IDT), rural
development type focusing on business, tourism and services industries (BTT), and balanced rural
development type (BDT), and classifies the rural development types in eastern coastal China. Then,
taking the social representation approach and basing on the major factors affecting the long-term rural
development and the exertion of the functions of the countryside with regard to society, the assessment
indicator system of rurality degree index (RDI) was established to distinguish the rurality degree of
different types. The results indicated that, to some extent, the RDI may accurately reflect the status quo of
rural development and the exertion of the functions of the countryside with regard to society, and can
also reflect the different stage in what the same rural development type in different region stays. The
authors argue that the study on the interaction of rural development factors in the process of economic
and social transformation and the subsequent rural development model is very important to deeply
understand the rural development and to smoothly achieve coordinated and balanced rural–urban
development in developing countries, which are experiencing rapid industrialization and urbanization.