Laiyu Village on the Yellow River: A Riverbank Resettlement

In Laiyu village, the Yellow River is both landscape and neighbor. A 2023 report describes the community’s move from a remote hillside setting to the riverbank: in 2017, 99 households, 380 people, relocated to a new site beside the water. Rows of Tibetan-style homes and village lanes then formed a different relationship between settlement and river.

The move changed the village’s relationship to the river: from a high, difficult-to-reach setting to a planned settlement close to the water. The report records the riverbank setting and the built pattern that emerged there, including homes, roads and courtyards.

The same account describes 16 rows of 99 Tibetan-style homes along the riverbank. It also follows how guesthouses and village tourism developed after construction began in 2021 and the project opened in summer 2022. By 2023, the report recorded villagers working in hospitality and other local jobs.

Laiyu offers a specific example of how a relocation can change the view from a household lane: a river running close to home, guesthouse buildings among the village houses, and tourism becoming part of the local economy. Along the riverbank, village lanes, homes and guesthouse courtyards show how the relocated community’s built form meets the Yellow River landscape.