Hefei: a model of inner city renewal

| Friday August 17, 2012 00:00

If you haven't you are forgiven! Hefei is a sprawling city in central eastern China located in the country's most economically dynamic area - the Yangtze River Delta region. It is situated in the lake shore of Chaohu, one of the five largest freshwater lakes in China.

Incidentally, Hefei received its 15 minutes of fame last week when international television networks carried a story about the wife of a prominent political leader in China who killed her British business associate. The city has a population of 7.5 million! And it makes many cities that you have heard about anywhere in the world look like Mickey Mouse. Hefei, with towering skyscrapers, heavy engineering factories and warehouses, is scenic overlooking Chaohu Lake to the south east and the Nanfei River which crosses through the city. Hefei is renowned as a garden city with leafy green vegetation comprising manicured grass lawns, trees and shrubs as well as varied colourful flowers all creating a pleasant environment in the city. 

Like many cities in China, Hefei is experiencing phenomenal growth. There are cranes all over the city as new high-rise buildings, offices and apartments are always coming up. Everywhere you look there are hulks of buildings under construction covered with green nets, and men putting on helmets busy at work.

New neighbourhoods meant to settle farmers and rural migrants are sprouting everywhere. The buildings are not 'projects' or cheap high-density hostels which usually turn into breeding grounds for crime.

They are high quality modern family size apartments. The construction is part of the Chinese government's pledge to build 35 million affordable housing in the country during the current plan period which ends in 2015.

The new neighbourhoods in Hefei are integrated into the city's main public infrastructure. They are part of the urban renewal project that the city has embarked. The neighbourhoods benefit from the services of an efficient Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system, and have shopping malls within a kilometre radius. There are also schools and health facilities which are  accessible to the people living in these neighbourhoods.

Driving through the city one sees hundreds of rows of blocks of apartments. The latest developments are on land that was previously used as farmland. The farmers who used to live there have been allocated smaller holdings and given the option of occupying the apartments. They can buy the apartments at concessionary prices.

In particular this type of housing is ideal for migrant workers who are employed in the city. They come from the rural areas and other provinces in the country and because they have an income they can afford paying rent or buying an apartment.Providing decent accommodation is not only happening in the cities in China.

The Chinese government is working hard at restructuring and rebalancing the economy to reduce inequality, especially between rural incomes and urban ones. Just over an hour's drive from Hefei is a village called Sanshupi where a similar form of quality improvement of peoples' lives is in progress.

The village was selected as a demonstration center where villagers and farmers around the village are being resettled in neighbourhoods comprising two or three storey apartment buildings. The goal is to improve the living standard of the rural poor.

Explains one municipal official, 'We are bringing together farmers to stay as a community and provide them with services like water, telephones and electricity.' He says before, the housing conditions were bad and there was no infrastructure. In Sanshupi alone, already 400 families have moved into the new housing units.

The families pay a subsidised rental and they have the option to buy the apartments at a concessionary price.

They sell farm produce like rice, wheat corn and vegetables to raise money to pay. They can also rent out their piece of land to other farmers to raise money to either buy the apartment or pay rent. This scheme is going to be replicated throughout the province and, may be, the whole country because it has already proved to be popular with the rural communities.