Archive for the ‘Urban Planning’ Category
Thursday, November 20th, 2008
Macua is looking into developing resorts with a difference, currently most of the resorts in Macau cater mainly for gamblers with the numerous casinos opening up over the last 5 years.
The change in direction from Developers in Macau is not only due to a the economic downtown with developers such as Sands laying off 11,000 workers but also due to the recent visiting restrictions for Mainland visitors.
From our own visits to Macau we found that in the last 12 months food prices in restaurants have increased dramatically, taxi fares have risen over 20% and most of all the resorts are geared towards gamblers not families.
Families have realised that after to going to Macau once and you have seen the historical sites there is not much else for families to do if you go for a second trip.
Inspiration for Landscape Architect Media article was “Macau mulls plans to develop more integrated resorts to attract visitors” posted by Channelnewsasia.com
Posted in Urban Planning | No Comments »
Sunday, November 9th, 2008
“Urban rail transportation would play an increasingly important role in public transportation in Chinese cities, said an official.
Fifteen major cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, have planned the construction of more than 60 urban rail lines recently, Liu Shijin, vice director of Development Research Center of the State Council, said at a forum on urbanization and rail transportation here on Friday.”
SOURCE: Xinhua – China to have 1,700 km of urban rail lines by 2015_
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Thursday, November 6th, 2008
“The former rural town of Songzhuang, on the city’s eastern outskirts, has become one of the centers of Beijing’s burgeoning art scene over the last 10 years, drawing artists with its cheap rents and proximity to the capital’s growing markets and galleries.
But plans for a major new “cultural industry” development have sparked debate in the thriving community, with many artists fearing it could drive up rents and force the “commercialization” of the creative zone.
The Songzhuang town government announced on Oct. 28 that construction of the 10-billion-yuan development would begin next year, leading some of the town’s 3,000 artists to wonder if it was time to leave.”
Xinhua – Development plan for Beijing’s artist town gets mixed reviews_
Posted in China, Urban Planning | No Comments »
Wednesday, November 5th, 2008
“Nanjing will spend another 30 billion yuan ($4.41 billion) to renovate 3 million sq m of dilapidated residential areas before the end of 2010, a government spokesman said yesterday.
The measures were announced after Nanjing won the top UN Habitat award at the ongoing World Urban Forum in the city.”
SOURCE: Chinadaily – Award-winning Nanjing to spend $4b on new housing.
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Wednesday, November 5th, 2008
Paul Farmer, chief executive officer of the American Planning Association, once summarized his planning concept as “honor history, celebrate the present, and choose the future.”
In reality, especially at the current development stage in China, we seem to have too many “celebrations” of the present at the expense of historical heritage and future generations’ well-being.
SOURCE: Xinhua – It’s time to rethink ideas on urban planning
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Saturday, November 1st, 2008
The communist parties of China and Vietnam on Friday started a seminar on issues concerning agriculture, rural areas and farmers.
“As both China and Vietnam are countries with a dominant rural population, the issues of agriculture, rural areas and farmers have always been high on the agenda of the two countries’ ruling communist parties,” a senior official of the Communist Party of China (CPC), Zhou Yongkang, told the seminar.
SOURCE: Xinhua – Communist parties of China, Vietnam hold seminar on rural issues
Posted in Urban Planning | 6 Comments »
Saturday, October 25th, 2008
Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Chief Executive Donald Tsang announced the appointment of members to the Board of the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority to accelerate the construction of the cultural district project.
Chief Secretary for Administration of HKSAR government Henry Tang was appointed as chairman of the board while 15 non-public officers include orchestral conductor, film production administrator, professor, planner, architect and qualified accountant.
read more @ the SOURCE: Xinhua – Hong Kong takes another step forward to build major cultural district project.
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Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008
“China’s Ministry of Culture on Tuesday set building standards of public libraries to ensure that they can meet the demands of the country’s booming urban population.
Population size would be the major reference for the size of new libraries from Nov. 1, the ministry said in a circular.”
read more @ the SOURCE: Xinhua – library standards for booming urban communities.
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Monday, October 20th, 2008
“China will take multiple measures to support rural economic and social development to realize a balanced growth between its rural and urban areas, according to a Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee decision here on Sunday……” read more @ the SOURCE: Xinhua – China vows to strive for balanced rural and urban development
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Sunday, October 19th, 2008
“It is ironic that both India and China are having to grapple, at roughly the same time, with the knotty issue of putting agricultural land to industrial or urban use.
India has been beset by a series of protests against the transfer of cultivable land to factory and mining projects. In China, a high-level meeting of the ruling Communist Party discussed sweeping changes last week to allow agricultural land to be used for industrial or non-farming purposes.”
read more @ the SOURCE: The Times of India – Lesson from China: Get agricultural land price right-India-
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