This was supposed to be the site of Dongtan, the world’s first eco-city, a paradise of sustainable living that would house half-a-million people and set an example to the world.
However an investigation by The Sunday Telegraph has revealed that Dongtan is still nothing but a pipe dream.
read more @ the SOURCE: China’s pioneering eco-city of Dongtan stalls - Telegraph.
The term “urban village” has often appeared in the media, especially in the newspapers of Shenzhen and Guangzhou (coastal cities in southern China where migrant population congregate). In recent years, a “makeover” for these urban villages has become urgent task for local authorities.
read more @ the SOURCE: Economic Observer Online – Rethinking The Makeover of Urban Villages.
China Daily gives an insight into the companies moving inland from the Shanghai and surrounding coastal cities – higher land, construction and labour costs.
“A changing industrial landscape is unfolding in China’s most prosperous coastal region…….
read more @ the SOURCE: China Daily Companies moving inland from coastal region.
SHANGHAI’S urban planning authority has developed tougher rules designed to bring historic preservation standards up to the same level in the suburbs as they are in the downtown.
The plan, unveiled yesterday by the Shanghai Urban Planning and Administrative Bureau, covers 32 suburban sites of historic importance and will soon be approved by city government, officials said.
SOURCE: Shanghai Daily – City to boost cultural protection in the ‘burbs
Shanghai is well on the way to turning most of its rooftops green.
The Shanghai landscaping administration bureau said Monday that so far more than 95,000 sq m of rooftops have been covered in grass and shrubs, very close to the annual target of 100,000 sq m. The city will spend 5 million yuan ($710,000) this year on the campaign.
SOURCE: China Daily – Shanghai closes in on green roof target.
Vice premier Hui Liangyu on Tuesday called for the better use of the second national agricultural census to develop scientific plans for harmonized urban and rural development.
SOURCE: Xinhua– Vice premier urges better use of China’s farm census data_
ANOTHER link in the Yangtze River Tunnel and Bridge project was completed in Shanghai yesterday.
Major engineering work on the tunnel section, from Pudong New Area to Changxing Island, and the bridge section from Changxing to Chongming Island, are now finished.
SOURCE: Shanghai Daily – Chongming link a step closer
Urban planning experts from Hong Kong, Taiwan and the mainland are currently working with the government on a plan to regenerate neglected local Chinese heritage.
While the city’s lauded UNESCO world heritage sites have received much attention from the government and public, other historical parts of the city have been long ignored, said Shenglin Chang, associate professor of the National Taiwan University’s Graduate Institute of Building and and Planning.
“Especially during the years around the transition [to Chinese rule] the Portuguese government didn’t focus on the preservation of the historic Chinese neighbourhoods at all,” she said.
For a number of years various government departments and committees formed from residents of Macau’s so-call “old neighbourhoods” located in the north and west of the city have been debating how to bring new life – and better standards of housing – into the aged districts.
China’s Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development (MHURD) stressed in a circular on Tuesday that infrastructure restoration was a priority in reconstruction after the May 12 earthquake.
The MHURD ordered governments at all levels to draw up construction plans by June 8, including building locations and materials.
It instructed officials to better manage construction of interim housing in quake-hit areas to ensure its safety.
The government is to assess all school buildings in quake zones, said a statement from the earthquake relief headquarters of the State Council.
Local governments must organize personnel to conduct safety appraisals of all school buildings as soon as possible to ensure the safety of students as they return to school, according to the statement.
SOURCE: Xinhua – Reconstruction of infrastructure priority in quake-hit areas.
CHENGDU, May 24 (Xinhua) — China will build 1.5 million make-shift houses in the quake-stricken Sichuan Province, which are expected to endure at least three years, Minister of Housing and Urban-Rural Development Jiang Weixin said Saturday.
The houses, offering 20 square meters floor space each, should be made of anti-quake and environment-friendly materials and equipped with lighting facilities, Jiang said at a meeting held by the State Council’s earthquake relief headquarters here in the provincial capital.
Supportive public facilities such as schools and medical service should also be set up, he added.
The unaffected provinces in the quake were required to provide aid to a designated stricken area in Sichuan. Jiang said the unaffected provinces or municipalities should appoint skilled builders and transport the makeshift houses to the quake-hit areas as soon as possible.
SOURCE: Xinhua News Agency – China to build 1.5 mln make-shift houses for quake-affected people_English
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World Landscape Architect