Xinhua Insight: What will China do to improve urban design?

China's new guideline to address "urban ills" has generally won applause after it was published Sunday and aroused attention to measures to conserve outlook of cities with historic heritage.

The urban planning document, from the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the State Council, includes clauses that ban mass-demolitions and "odd-looking" architecture, and states that cities must not be allowed to grow beyond the means of their natural resources.

MEGA-CITY WOES

In 2015, 56.1 percent of the population lived in China's urban areas, a huge leap from 17.9 percent in 1978. There are now 15 mega-cities across the county, each with a population of over 10 million.

Shenzhen, for example, has ballooned from a tiny fishing village to a vast metropolis, a transformation that can be traced back to when it was named China's first Special Economic Zone in 1980.

This huge movement of people has resulted in significant social and economic change in China, spawning problems including congestion, pollution and crime. Such urban ills have provoked public ire, putting pressure on city planners to find solutions.

According to the guideline, the ministries of land resources, housing construction and agriculture will work together to manage the expansion of new-growing cities to keep their population under 5 million.

Farmland protection will be given top priority, according to the document, while land for construction will be "properly allocated." It will take around five years to inspect and clear up illegal construction projects across the country.

China's property boom over the past decade has seen 2 billion square meters of new building space added every year on average. This has resulted in housing bubbles and "ghost cities," where buildings and roads lie empty and unused.

PRESERVATION, GREEN EXPANSION

The guideline calls for city planners to be conscious of the local flavor when designing urban spaces, adding that, aside from architecture, resource and energy conservation and environmental protection should also be taken into account.

This approach to urban planning is already being applied in some areas of the country.

Niu Changchun, chief planner with Jinan Municipal Urban Planning Bureau, said Jinan is already following much of the advice included in the guideline.

Jinan, capital of east China's Shandong Province, drafted a plan last year that includes measures to protect districts of historical value, a ban on garishly colored buildings and promotional activities that will use its natural resources to drive future development.

Known as the "City of Springs," the city's spring water is often called the soul of Jinan. With this in mind, the city will renovate spring sites, Niu said, which will play an important part in making the city green.

The plan has solicited public opinions and is waiting for approval from the State Council, according to Niu.

Similarly, Xi'an, capital of northwest China's Shaanxi Province, famous for the Terracotta Army, has rolled out measures to preserve the city's ancient city walls and other historical sites while preventing "trendy, strange, and ugly" eyesores from emerging, according to Wei Minzhou, secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Xi'an Committee.

To address the city's lack of green space and water, eight ancient waterways will be renovated and more green belts established in the next five years, Wei said.

To date, Xi'an has added about 20 million square meters of green space and expanded its water areas to 733.3 hectares, which has helped improve the environment.

RATIONAL PLANNING

Fu Qiping, a National People's Congress delegate and secretary of Tengtou Village CPC Committee in Zhejiang Province, said he planned to petition lawmakers for better supervision of mass demolition, which is usually motivated by local authorities' greed for the income generated by land sales.

He lamented the unfettered real estate development.

Public funds have also been used to finance ostentatious purchases, sometimes called "face projects." A prime example being a 30 million yuan (4.6 million U.S. dollars) gate and two giant gold-gilded dragon sculptures at Nanchang University in east China's Jiangsu Province.

The two projects were built under the university's former president Zhou Wenbin. He was sentenced to life in prison in December last year for bribery and embezzlement.

Face projects have wasted billions of yuan of tax-payers' money, said Ding Yuanzhu, from the policy consultation department at the Chinese Academy of Governance.

He said urban planning guidelines should be designed with and for the people.

"Any government documents that trigger public ire should be made better by soliciting public opinion." Endi