When Chen Biyun remembers her old home in Fuzhou's Taijiang district, she recalls creaking wooden beams, four families squeezed into a single two-story house, and the indignity of carrying a chamber pot to a communal latrine.

It was the late 1990s, and her family still had to fetch water by hand every day. Baths required boiling water and hauling it upstairs in heavy wooden tubs.

"It was particularly hard when typhoons hit. Storms were raging outside, and it was raining inside," said Chen, who is now a resident of Cangxia New Town, a modern residential community that replaced one of the largest shantytowns in Fuzhou, Fujian province.

Residents such as Chen witnessed a turning point in 2000, when Xi Jinping — then the province's governor — visited their neighborhood amid blistering summer heat. Inside the stifling, sauna-like rooms, Xi listened to families describe their cramped living conditions.

Soon after, he convened a meeting with officials and residents' representatives. "Please convey a message to the residents," Xi told them. "The government will live up to your expectations and make sure to do this good thing well."

Chen still remembers her joy upon learning that the neighborhood would be redeveloped. "In less than a year, we were able to move back. It was so fast," she said.

Her story offers a glimpse of what became known as the "3820"strategic project — an ambitious urban blueprint launched by Xi during his six-year tenure as Fuzhou's Party secretary, beginning in April 1990.

First outlined in 1992, the plan mapped out a vision for Fuzhou's development over three, eight and 20 years. It sought to tackle the city's immediate urban challenges while charting a course for modernization decades ahead.

The plan's goals were bold: to achieve a major economic leap within three years — doubling key indicators by 1995 from 1990 levels; to reach, within eight years, the development standards of China's more advanced cities; and within 20 years, by around 2010, to approach the average level of medium-developed Asian economies.

The results have been striking. Fuzhou's GDP grew from 15 billion yuan ($2.11 billion) in 1992 to 324.3 billion yuan in 2010, expanding at an average annual rate of 16 percent — higher than both national and provincial averages. By 2024, the city's GDP had reached 1.42 trillion yuan.

Urban residents' per capita disposable income rose from 2,273 yuan in 1992 to 60,758 yuan in 2024, while rural residents' income climbed from 1,109 yuan to 30,569 yuan.

For Xi, who would later become China's top leader, the "3820"project was far more than a municipal development plan.

"In the prime years of my life, I was here," Xi said during an inspection tour of Fuzhou in March 2021. "What you see today follows the direction we set back then — in fact, it has developed even better than we envisioned."

According to Liu Yafang, an associate research fellow at the Fujian Academy of Social Sciences, the initiative epitomized Xi's people-centered philosophy, with public well-being listed among its key development goals.

Under the plan, over 500 shantytown areas across the city were redeveloped, allowing thousands of residents to move from dilapidated homes into modern apartments.

"It was also trailblazing in that it proposed an ultra-long-term 20-year development plan," Liu said. "It emphasized that a city's growth should not only consider medium-and long-term goals over 10 or 20 years, but also long-range objectives over 30, 50, or even 100 years."

That, she added, reflected Xi's "strategic resolve and vision to ensure success, regardless of who receives the credit".

Reviving waterways

Analysts said the city served as an early testing ground for Xi's governance ideas — including long-term strategic planning, ecological restoration, industrial upgrading and institutional reform.

Nowhere was the plan's scope clearer than in Fuzhou's polluted waterways. By the late 1980s, West Lake — a historic landmark dating back to the Tang Dynasty (618-907) — had become choked with sludge and sewage.

"Several surrounding communities had become major pollution sources, with domestic wastewater being discharged directly into the lake," said Gao Xiaoping, deputy general manager of the Fuzhou Planning and Design Research Institute.

The "3820" strategic project listed infrastructure improvement and environmental restoration as key priorities. Projects such as intercepting sewers, lakeside walkways, and a wooden boardwalk linking West Lake and Zuohai Lake improved both the city's ecology and its recreational space.

Meanwhile, dredging and sewage interception restored the lake's water quality and ecosystem. "It took years of persistence to restore the beauty you see today," Gao said.

She noted that the ecology-first mindset established under the plan continues to shape Fuzhou's river and lake governance to this day.

Thriving industries

The economic ambitions of the strategic project were equally far-reaching. Xi pushed to develop new industrial zones, including an auto manufacturing hub in Qingkou township.

"At that time this area was rice paddies, with poor transportation and low incomes," said Lawrence Ke, general manager of Fuzhou Lianhong Motor Parts Co.

"Xi personally laid out the blueprint for the development of the auto city, and he paid close attention to the growth of enterprises," Ke said.

Three decades later, the area has evolved into a thriving automotive cluster, which is home to joint ventures such as Fujian Benz.

"The '3820' blueprint laid the foundation for prosperity," Ke said.

Kong Xiao, president and CEO of Fujian Benz Automotive Co, said that the "3820" strategic project spurred the development of Fuzhou's auto city. "Today we benefit from strong infrastructure, a mature supply chain, and a developed talent pool out of universities."

For private enterprises, the plan offered not just physical infrastructure but also a shift in policy thinking.

Wang Jing, CEO of Newland Hi-Tech Co, one of Fuzhou's pioneering tech companies, said that the project reflected Xi's "farsighted, systematic approach".

"What made the project great was his foresight, systematic thinking and comprehensive planning for the city's development — at a time when Fuzhou was still relatively underdeveloped," she said. "In the plan's three-year and eight-year phases, he placed great emphasis on improving the city's environment — its urban and ecological conditions, business climate and cultural atmosphere. We truly benefited from that."

She said that another core aspect of the plan was its emphasis on supporting enterprise development, innovation and talent — priorities that helped private companies flourish.

Analysts said the "3820" strategic project combined long-term planning with phased targets, balancing the urgency of short-term reforms with a structured vision for the city's future.

"The project was a grand, cross-century blueprint that demonstrated Xi's strategic vision and systematic thinking," said Liu, from the Fujian Academy of Social Sciences.

She added that the plan adapted development goals to local conditions while embedding institutional reforms.

"Fuzhou was one of the first cities to answer the questions of what kind of modernization to pursue and how to pursue it," Liu said. "It provided a practical foundation for the theory of Chinese modernization."

Contact the writers at xuwei@chinadaily.com.cn