New buildings are seen in this photo taken on Tuesday, on December 23, 2008. This is a new community called Xinhe built by the government of Qiqihar, in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province for people who previously lived in shanties. [Photo: CRIENGLISH.com]

A 66-year-old grandma in Qiqihar, in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, is looking forward to moving into a new apartment for the very first time. Amid the joy of her new life, she feels sorry that her husband, who passed away early this year, cannot be here to see their new home.

The old woman, Ge Guilan, and four other family members including her husband, lived in a shabby shanty no bigger than 33 square meters for dozens of years. This time, as low-income urban residents, they bought a 50-square-meter apartment for only seven thousand yuan. In this city, the average price for an apartment is nearly 3,000 yuan per square meter.

On December 10 this year, Ge's family, and another 1,016 residents that had lived in shantytowns, got the keys to these new apartments built by the local government. Most of these families, including Ge's are busy decorating now in order to move into their new home before the New Year and celebrate there.

Thankful for the government's prompt action, these poor urban families had to wait only a few months before they could move into these free or low-priced apartments.

"We moved out of the damp shanty on June 28 (this year). It was demolished on July 1. And we got the keys on December 10. It cost us only about 7,000 yuan, very cheap, isn't it?" said Ge.

According to Zhang Guihai, vice mayor of Qiqihar, this year, 6,427 such households moved into new homes covering a total area of 0.5 million square meters, after 0.43 million square meters of shantytowns were dismantled.

Since 2001, the local government has invested a huge amount of money in renovating slum areas that were without basic living standards, such as running water or heating. Ge Guilan mentioned that she is particularly glad she will not have to deal with wood and coal in winter any more, since her new apartment is equipped with heating.

About 3.5 million square meters of shantytowns have been demolished and 173 thousand people have waved goodbye to their shabby houses. 15,000 households, or 46,000 people, have been relocated into government-funded communities over a period of seven years.

Under the policy, residents who have property ownership certificates are entitled to new homes of the same size as the shacks they left, free of charge. Even dwellers living in unapproved buildings can get a free apartment that's half the floor space of their shanties. They can also add extra space at a discounted price, Zhang Liang, director assistant of the 'Qiqihar Construction Bureau' told CRI.

"It's not a matter of money. It's an overall policy aimed at benefiting the urban poor. Recipients of subsistence allowances or disabled people and their families can get a new 40-square-meter apartment free of charge even though their old house was smaller than that," said Zhang Liang.

"There are some five million square meters of shantytowns in Qiqihar's centre. We plan to demolish them all within four or five years. All the funds are paid for by the government. As for 2008, we have invested over one billion yuan. When the entire renovation is complete, the total will exceed 14 billion yuan." Zhang said.

Actually, in the past five years, as part of the efforts to "rejuvenate China's northeast", three provinces, namely Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang, have tried hard to improve the urban poor's living conditions. For instance, Jilin Province has dismantled shantytowns in urban areas covering 35.7 million square meters over three years.

As one of China's old industrial bases, a large number of temporary buildings, such as makeshift work sheds, were built in northeast China to accommodate workers from the 1950's.

(CRIENGLISH.com December 25, 2008)