After more than 20 years of large-scale immigration and the living practices of “migratory birds,” the geographical category, health status, social class and age structure of the resident population in the Panyang River Basin have been completely reconstructed. The geographical categories of the resident population primarily comprise Bama natives and “migratory birds.” In 2020, the 6 administrative villages in the Panyang River Basin had a local household population of approximately 14,500. The “migratory bird” urban-rural mobility to the Panyang River Basin lacks public statistics. According to a comprehensive assessment of information from local governments, authoritative media and “migratory bird” social organizations, there were approximately 120,000 “migratory birds” in the area in 2019, including approximately 24,000 long-stay (6+ months) migrants. The scale of “migratory bird” migration has been affected by COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) and China’s epidemic prevention and control policy, and the scale of returning “migratory birds” has experienced repeated fluctuations and sharp shrinkage. According to a comprehensive assessment of field surveys and interviews with volunteer village organizers, “migratory bird” social organizers and senior executives of health-based real estate who participated in the implementation of epidemic prevention and control, the “migratory bird” scale since the epidemic was approximately 40,000 person-times/year, including approximately 8000 person-times/year for long-stay “migratory birds.”

The “migratory birds” and the Bama natives have distinct socioeconomic characteristics. The peaceful and harmonious Zhuang settlements have lined the Panyang River for many years. In 2020, there were 102 centenarians, which is 5.7 times the international standard for “longevity regions.” Bama natives typically have a primary or junior high school education and maintain deep beliefs in temple gods and a strong ethnic identity. According to the questionnaire results, most (79.39%) of the “migratory birds” come from the developed eastern coast, the severely cold climes of northern China, and the central and western provinces adjacent to Guangxi. The “migratory birds,” as a whole, are middle class, and most (71.58%) are younger seniors (50-70 years old), most of whom (64.03%) suffer from chronic illnesses, major diseases or postoperative healing. Most (74.32%) of these migrants have a high school education level or above, and most (78.59%) work for government agencies, state-owned enterprises and institutions, private business owners or are self-employed. The vast majority (90.77%) have a monthly disposable income of more than 2000 yuan. “Migratory birds” have the dual roles of “tourists” and “residents,” forming a living state of “healing, rural life, tourism and vacation, work and investment” that focuses mainly on healing/rehabilitation, a healthy and long life, and avoiding pollution. Some 59% of these migrants have revisited and resettled in the area, and 75.76% of them have stayed for more than 3 months, demonstrating transitional characteristics from tourism to permanent living.

In the context of grand urban-rural migration, 70% of young and middle-aged men and unmarried women leave the area to work or run businesses, and “migratory birds” can be seen everywhere, thus creating an obviously “aging” atmosphere; the age structure of the resident population is, therefore, increasingly unbalanced.

The longevity villages along the Panyang River Basin are Zhuang settlements that naturally form the Zhuang community (i.e., the Zhuang social group) through strong ties of blood and geography. The Zhuang community and settlements along the river,represent the dominant ethnicity with strong place roots and high well-being. The Zhuang community is the foundation of the longevity rural community because its atmosphere, culture and customs are the very elements of rural nature and nostalgia for which people constantly yearn. Further, Bama’s longevity genes can only be inherited by the original community.

Nonetheless, longevity villages are increasingly diversified due to the large-scale influx of “migratory birds” and their living practices of seasonal tourism and long-stay living, as well as the development of the comprehensive health industry. “Migratory birds” have formed a variety of interesting and aspirational groups and have established “migratory bird” social organizations. As a result, the “migratory bird” community represents the foreign and newly born local community and consistently generates community stories and spatial significance in their “second hometown” and “distant home.”

“Most of the members of Blue Bond are younger seniors with sound bodies and some critically ill patients with good mentality. We cherish the Bama and carry out environmental protection, such as garbage collection activities on the 15th of every month. We have never stopped for six years. We also do our best to help local kids. Experts in ‘migrant birds’ actively participated in consultation with the Jiazhuan Town Governance and Poyue Village Development.” (R01, male, 56 years old, college education, CEO, liver cancer, a long-stay “migratory bird” for healthy life, social work and business)

There are massive differences in wealth, culture, experience and lifestyle between Bama natives and “migratory birds.” Generally, these groups maintain only superficial contact, and it is difficult to achieve genuine social integration. The Bama natives have shrines in temples; the villagers believe in temple gods who are honest and responsible and have a strong ethnic awareness, and it is thus easy to maintain a strong ethnic group identity. Clan culture and collective consciousness are conducive to avoiding the risk of the host being marginalized (Tan and Xu, 2019). The “migratory birds” lack a deep understanding and recognition of village sacrificial activities, and there are conflicts of interest between “migratory birds” and villagers regarding the use of living resources and recreational space. Not all “migratory birds” are willing to participate in rural construction, regarding the longevity geographical environment as free for their health and welfare. The self-interested behavior of critically ill patients and patients with skin diseases taking baths and immersing their feet in the Panyang River has caused panic and disgust among the locals. Some “migratory birds” have become a group that was “stared at” by local residents and became unpopular (Tan and Xu, 2019).

“Bama village is poor because of laziness. The men here are too lazy, drink too much, indulge in life and enjoy themselves, while women do most of the work on the land and at home. Every time they make sacrifices to the temple, they kill livestock and indulge in eating and drinking together.” (R3, female, 63 years old, college education, subhealth, a revisiting seasonal tourist for rural and healthy life)

“The ‘migratory birds’ are here. We earn some rent, do odd jobs, and make some money, but most of the young people have gone to work in big cities. In recent years, ‘migratory birds’ have been everywhere in Bama villages. There are many ‘migratory bird’ activities, such as fetching water, singing, dancing, playing musical instruments, climbing mountains, performing, but they are all their ways of playing, their own circles. Sometimes, our grassroots organizations set up a stage to hold a theatrical performance for the villagers and ‘migratory birds.’ There is no atmosphere like it used to be. And ah, those with cancer and skin diseases are bathing in the Panyang River. Who knows what diseases they have and whether they will be contagious?” (V2, female, 46 years old, high school education, a village cadre)

The “migratory birds” have leased, purchased and developed second residences, leading to the construction of residential space in the Panyang River Basin. A large number of residential buildings have been rebuilt or newly built, primarily village home inns, block apartments, rural villas and high-end health care resorts. Initially, “migratory birds” lived in village homes with relatively simple living conditions or converted village home inns and were widely distributed throughout the longevity villages along the Panyang River Basin. With the differentiation of residential needs and consumption upgrades of “migratory birds,” the types of residential structures have become more diverse, and the conditions are more comfortable. The block apartments are mainly distributed in commercial living blocks and tourist blocks, such as in Baimotun village, Poyue Street, Ping’antun village, and Jiazhuan Street, where “migratory birds” live together. These apartment buildings have introduced hotel management services and provide relatively comfortable and convenient accommodations. The pastoral villas are distributed along the middle and lower reaches of the Panyang River Basin. Ponatun village encouraged the neighboring village Pomotun to develop homestays and collectively built 158 rural villas. Boutique hotels and Yuanxiang sojourn brands have successively entered. The area is an emerging high-quality “migratory bird” living space that relies on pastoral villas and ecological leisure agriculture and has developed into the five-star rural tourism area known as the Jundabanlan scenic area. Real estate developers use the landscape health care real estate development model to build high-quality health care communities to meet the needs of amenity immigrants for high-end living and care (Tan and Xu, 2019). In addition to the renewal of residential structure and conditions, the Panyang River Basin has added a variety of tourist and residence spaces, such as scenic spots, tourist facilities, leisure and recreation sites, commercial facilities, and public facilities.

The “migratory birds” congegrate in tourist commercial streets with dense buildings, prosperous markets and numerous street shops, as well as unified planning areas such as rural homestay-type settlements and high-end health care resorts. The Panyang River Basin presents a mixed settlement landscape of a “city in the village,” which serves as both a longevity metaphor and a middle-class aesthetic modern pastoral and quality health enclave (Figure 5).

Longevity rural amenities in the Panyang River Basin have been transformed into a material amenity space and cultural landscape through sojourn consumption and commercial capital investment, but there has been a certain degree of blind development and a trend of quick success. “Migratory birds” relax, heal and live in Bama’s healthful geographical environment of harmony between humans and nature, which is a process of a natural return to the essence of life and gradually integrating themselves into the location. Nonetheless, Bama is full of commercialized and pseudoscientific health care products and longevity lifestyles. In addition to the common spas, magnetic therapies, and oxygen therapies, absurd treatments such as dog climbing and walking, fasting and purification, divine medicine and pseudoscientific and technological health care have also emerged. In the hype-based operations of commercial capital on Bama’s healthy geographical environment, Yao and Zhuang minority medicine resources and the “centenarian” phenomenon have emerged. Furthermore, through word of mouth regarding the “migratory bird” healing miracle, Bama’s healthful environment and longevity phenomenon have been exaggerated, and the “longevity land” has been constructed as a “holy land” for preserving people’s health and a “recuperation heaven” for critically ill patients. Due to the lack of statistical data and comprehensive research on the scale and structure of critically ill patients gathered in Baimotun village, Bama has suffered from the stigma of being a “cancer village” under the media’s out-of-context and inaccurate reports on the healing phenomena taking place there (Wang et al., 2020).

“Cancer patients regard Bama as the ‘last straw’, ‘you can travel through a hundred demons and cure all diseases’, and they believe that the water, geomagnetism and negative oxygen ions in the Baimo cave can drive away evil spirits and cure all diseases, including cancer. With an increasing number of patients, Baimotun village has another name: ‘cancer village’.” (R12, male, 66 years old, postgraduate education, subhealth, a long-stay “migratory bird” for healthy life and business)

The improvement of material living conditions is changing the original healthy eating style of the villages, and the original lifestyles of these villages are also quietly changing (Tan and Xu, 2019). Bama’s traditional production and lifestyle of “blessings from heaven and earth, self-sufficiency, enduring hardships and eternal happiness, longevity in benevolence and health in safety” have been constructed as or have been impacted by consumption experiences. For visiting centenarians, receiving blessings is an important type of longevity cultural experience, the widely circulated longevity landscape of centenarians waiting for visitor gift tips wrapped up in red packets has occurred with only a few centenarians in Pingantun Village, which is an open tourism village. Most seniors maintain the work habit of “live old, work old.” What changes is not the work habit but the method. In addition to farm work, the elderly are engaged in small businesses with low labor intensity (Figure 6).

“The government also provides living allowances to centenarians and regular home physical examinations, but the elderly in their 90s in the village cannot enjoy it. Our Zhuang and Yao elderly rarely celebrate their birthdays, so it is difficult to verify the real age of elderly individuals, and the phenomenon of false age reporting and striving to be a centenarian has naturally appeared.” (V3, male, 38 years old, high school education, an agricultural technician)

“Bama’s longevity eating habits are not deliberate. In the past, there was not enough oil and rice, so we could only eat hemp, polenta and green vegetables. During the festival, we ate chicken, duck, pig, and sheep and boiled them in water. The eating habits of white burning and white cutting are symbols of poverty. Now the living conditions are better, and I like to eat stir-fried vegetables and meat, more delicious.” (G1, male, 36 years old, college education, a township cadre)

The mobility phenomenon of longevity villages in the Panyang River Basin is bidirectional and complex, which is manifested in Bama natives’ periodic rural-urban mobility and the seasonal urban-rural mobility of “migratory birds.” The rural-urban mobility of the Bama people has a periodic rhythm, starting after the “Lantern Festival”¹(¹The Lantern Festival: The fifteenth day of the first lunar month is the last day of the traditional Spring Festival.) or Zhuang minority festival celebrated on March 3²(²Zhuang nationality festival on March 3: This is a major festival for local people and for Zhuang people’s folk sacrifices as well as driving to folk fairs and singing fairs; the start date is the third day of the third month of the Chinese lunar calendar, generally connected with the Han people’s Qingming Festival for worshipping their ancestors.). Zhuang natives have lived in Bama for generations; they love and attach great importance to their festivals, clans and folk customs. The period from the “Spring Festival” to “March 3” is the time for Bama natives to return to their hometown for reunions and to hold parties, happy events, ceremonies and clan sacrifices. Therefore, the ending of the “Lantern Festival” or “March 3” gatherings and ceremonies naturally marks the beginning of rural-urban mobility. The “migratory bird” urban-rural mobility has obvious seasonal characteristics, and its peak season begins annually in September and ends in April the following year. Given the bidirectional mobility and differentiated mobility rhythms of Bama natives and “migratory birds,” the period from the Spring Festival to March 3 is the busiest and most vibrant time for locals and “migratory birds” in longevity villages.

The original Zhuang community and the newly emerging “migratory bird” community have jointly formed a diverse and symbiotic community relationship and have constructed community living spaces with different functions and meanings, which naturally form social divisions. As far as the Bama people are concerned, the settlement bears the multiple functions of agricultural (sideline) production, residential life and the relationship between relatives and neighbors, forming an integrated space for their survival, production and life. Bama natives obtain economic benefits from the large-scale immigration of “migratory birds” by sharing or transferring part of their “home” and settlement spaces. As a result, the function of rural production and living has transitioned to tourism and living. As far as the “migratory birds” are concerned, consuming the longevity geographical atmosphere and realizing fitness and longevity are living themes. The “migratory bird” living space comprises living, consumption, recreation, emotions and health care space, which are usually embedded and integrated into the village or a health enclave isolated from the native community (high-end health care resort) (Tan and Xu, 2018). In summary, the complex mobility and “heterogeneous” living space practices of the host-guest community are the fundamental reasons driving the comprehensive reconstruction of the resident population, the social separation of the host-guest community, and changes to the area’s residential structure and lifestyle.

The long-term urban-rural dual structure and imbalanced regional development make it difficult for western rural areas to resist the coercion of urban consumption culture and commercial capital interests. Even in rural areas with rich amenity resources and deep ethnic cultures, it is difficult to resist the pressure of urban consumption and commercial capital as longevity destinations are transformed into sites of consumption for tourists and sojourner tourists and profit-seeking spaces for capital. In terms of the historical process and the time-space narrative of the grand strategy, a healthy geographical environment and longevity lifestyle are the most valuable amenity resources of the Panyang River Basin of Bama. The essence of the transformation from an integrated space to the heterogeneous living spaces shared by hosts and guests lies in the capitalization and commercialization of rural amenities. Local governments tend to recruit large-scale commercial capital, occupy core resource spaces on a large scale, develop high-end resorts and health care projects, and develop “health enclaves” that are separate both from the leisure and entertainment places frequented by “migratory birds” with low and medium consumption and from the natives’ living space. The local government and investment developers have jointly led the development of the comprehensive health industry, which has driven the economic development and rural construction of Bama and has brought about issues of resource development ethics and social space justice. For example, in the mixed settlement landscape in the Panyang River Basin, is the landscape “beautification” or landscape “trap” (landscape fetishism) building an inclusive and beautiful living community or building a “wellness utopia” for urban people? The phenomena of the “Bama myth,” “cancer village stigma” and “health enclave” reflect the problem of insufficient top-level design and systematic thinking about Bama’s health and longevity amenities. Capital interests and a consumption orientation together create social segregation, the longevity “myth” and delocalized development.

The Panyang River Basin is an important area in which the Bama local government deploys its poverty alleviation strategy to connect with rural revitalization work. The local government has shifted the work focus from infrastructure construction, overall poverty alleviation, and the building of tourism poverty alleviation demonstration sites to comprehensive industry development and rural revitalization. Compared with the work fields of investment attraction, industry development, landscape renovation, ecological and facility improvement, community construction and governance are less urgent and less effective. Therefore, the Bama government tends to integrate rural governance into poverty governance and industry development. As the smallest unit of the national governance system, village organizations have strengthened their administrative functions due to the transmission and distribution of national resources in the implementation of poverty alleviation and rural revitalization strategies and have gradually formed a system-oriented, top-down rural governance model. Moreover, China has a township governance tradition of “imperial power does not go down to the county, but only clan power governs the county.” In remote rural areas such as longevity villages in the Panyang River Basin, which have the dual attributes of West China ethnic villages and South China clan villages, clan power and gentry capital play a more significant role in township autonomy and mutual assistance. In the context of the great changes of the times, economically oriented development, and considerable rural-urban mobility, traditional rural governance, which represents local wisdom and clan culture, encounters the rigid constraints of institutional power and the implicit discipline of commercial capital and gradually loses control over resource utilization and discourse over local development. However, China’s rural land collective ownership and homestead system endow villagers with long-term land use rights to resist strong government power and commercial capital with the “weapons of the weak.” Behind the difficult-to-ban “city within a village” architectural landscape are the lagging rural planning and the land rent income of the Bama natives, which have become administrative dilemmas for the local government. Moreover, although “migratory birds” are a supplementary force for rural governance, they are an internally diverse and unintegrated group. Seasonal tourists and first-time sojourning “migratory birds” are indifferent to rural community development, whereas “migratory birds” who achieve or perceive health improvement have increased their social interaction with Bama natives during their many sojourns and long-term stays and have formed an emotional attachment in which “foreign land becomes their hometown.” They pay attention to the healthy and sustainable development of longevity amenities and actively engage in proenvironmental and responsible living behaviors. In general, the longevity villages in the Panyang River Basin lack the integrated consciousness of community development and have formed a “scattered desertification” pluralistic society, driven by the multiaction logic of local government performance pressure, economic-centric rural development, and the “migratory bird” health benefit-oriented behavior, which have deepened the issues of social segregation, landscape fetishism, and delocalized development.

From native settlements to gentrifying villages, the community structure of rural life has diversified, which raises the question of whether community symbiosis or community succession predominates. In terms of the issues of “alienation,” amenity and delocalization, the healing landscape represents a contest of community power. Thus, public construction and localized development are the keys to solving the issues of GRCD. Bama County, as a place, has long been trapped in the “karst dilemma”; that is, it has a weak agricultural foundation and lacks industrial production conditions. A healthful geographical environment and centenarians are the core resources for Bama’s industrial development, so the integrated development of the comprehensive health industry is the scientific position and the only way out for Bama’s current development situation. Local governments in rural areas, especially in ethnic areas, should adhere to the institutional arrangement, highlighting public and localization development and seeking balance and innovation between standardization and effectiveness in the implementation of poverty alleviation and rural revitalization strategies. First, the normative formulation and practical justice of local public decision-making should be strengthened. The Communist Party building of the Zhuang and “migratory bird” communities should be empowered, and rural revitalization and community development should be led by formal institutional arrangements. Second, strategies should fully mobilize the function of virtuous clan rule, utilize the benign demonstration role of the “migratory bird” elites and the organizational resources of “migratory bird” associations, cultivate new approaches to unite the region’s collective strength, and prioritize locality, dialog, and bottom-up informal institutional arrangements to form a dynamic relation and balance of interest with governments and commercial forces to prevent public interests from being strategically captured by the power-capital interest community. Third, tourism (sojourning) attractions should be empowered. Bama’s world-class longevity geographical environment, pastoral landscape, peaceful and quiet villages, minority health preservation resources and longevity lifestyle jointly constitute “longevity heaven,” which forms the core attraction for tourism, sojourning, and the development of the comprehensive health industry. Therefore, it is necessary to explore a community benefit distribution system linked to the “rights to tourist attractions.”

The core element of community structure is people, and the carrier of community structure is the spatial field. Rural gentrification is partially induced and driven by amenity migrants’ rural life practices. Therefore, a comfortable people-oriented living environment is the basic condition for community formation in gentrifying rural areas. Community making comes from place making, and place making implies “governance,” which is a process in which the local government, commercial capital and living groups jointly build shared spaces and develop common meanings. Since longevity villages represent the simplicity, longevity, and authenticity of pure rural imagery, the soul of the longevity village has always been the local life, clan story, local memory and longevity genes. The life cycle of the longevity village is far more than the human life course of one or several generations. Thus, consumption growth is only one dimensional expression and a certain stage and form of rural revitalization, and it is by no means the purpose of rural system revitalization and ultimate development. Rural revitalization needs to move toward a resilient development and better life. In other words, coconstructing a livable environment with shared comfort and resilience is the key to community making in gentrifying rural areas. The core of the amenity concept is pleasantness and comfort, yet it is also a humanistic conception of the regional environment (places and facilities) and its characteristics. Under the “longevity myth” and “cancer village stigma,” the plan (design) and construction of a comfortable community can be based on the local context and make good use of “localized” natural scenery, traditional aesthetics and local cultural heritage while remaining aware of the delocalization of construction and the "lifeless" spatial form of rough production dominated by consumer demand and urban aesthetics. In addition, it is necessary to make good use of local wisdom, integrate the human resources of “migratory birds,” comprehensively consider the needs of rural consumers and living subjects, and consider the livelihood development of the host and the construction of a better living space for immigrants (Tan and Xu, 2021) to jointly build a shared space of justice in a comfortable longevity community that offers better homes and better lives.

Inclusive development emphasizes subject universality, comprehensive content, equal process and sharing of results (Gao, 2021). There is no universal model of governance, and governance paradigms vary according to differences in governance subjects, scales, objects, content, and methods. In essence, the core of governance lies in power domination and benefit distribution and emphasizes power pluralism and benefits coordination. GRCD depends on inclusive development and collaborative governance. The first is the tolerance of people, that is, the complementary advantages and harmonious development within communities (social groups). Regarding the longevity villages in the Panyang River Basin, the roles and functions of host and guest communities are complementary, although these communities’ interest needs are naturally differentiated. The inclusive development of gentrifying rural communities needs to integrate community resources and guide the localized transformation of multiple forms of capital, such as economic, social and cultural capital, to increase the connection and expansion of factor flow and the interactive development between the rural and the external environment. The second is the tolerance of humans and nature, that is, the coordinated development of human-land relationships and environmental justice. Within the concept of strong sustainability, there is a certain interactive relationship among the economy, society and the environment that should be structurally reasonable. The people-centered concept of economic and social development allows negative growth of the environment (Wang and Li, 2021), but extremes will turn against each other. The alienation of the “Bama myth” and the “cancer village stigma” encountered by a healthful geographical environment and the longevity of “centenarians” represent an unjust environmental utilization and an intolerant community relationship. Rural resilience arises from the intertwined process of institutional arrangement and daily life (Lendvay, 2021) that cherishes the area’s core attractions and accommodates “migratory birds” (cancer patients) who are recuperating. Third, the tolerance of people and society requires coordinated governance to achieve fairness and justice. The governance of a large, vibrant East Asian country has naturally formed a campaign-style governance strategy. Western China has formed a rural development model in the context of poverty alleviation and rural revitalization that features the allocation of financial funds and projects, the leadership of grassroots organizations, and the development of economic centers. However, it is difficult to highlight villagers’ subjectivity and initiative due to their nonactive participation. Moreover, it is challenging to avoid implicit deprivation and discipline by government power and capital force. Resultant justice cannot replace procedural justice. The Chinese Practice of Tourism Poverty Alleviation—the methods of community empowerment, rural attraction rights, benefit distribution and cultural heritage inheritance of the “Azheke Plan” in Yuanyang Terraces, Yunnan (Bao and Yang, 2022)—can become good governance tools for gentrifying rural communities in longevity villages.