A call for affordable housing in big cities
Literature can be read in many ways. What can be read from Folding Beijing, a story by Chinese writer Hao Jingfang, which won a prize at this year’s World Science Fiction Convention in Missouri?
In that sci-fi story, the Chinese capital city is divided into three physical layers (those for the elite, middle class and underclass), separated by space and by time.
An administrative official can easily tell that this must be a dangerous world because people belonging to different layers of the folded city rarely interact, and once they do, they engage in
This Day, That Year
ItemfromAug29,1983,in ChinaDaily:Ascientistuses aninfraredscannertomeasureairpollutionduringan airbornesurveyover Taiyuan,capitalofShanxi province....
ThemajorsourceofBeijing’sairpollutionisthe numerouscoal-burningboilerchimneyswhichdischarge largeamountsofsulfurdioxideintotheaireveryday....
Thekeytoalleviatingair pollutioninBeijingisto reducethenumberofboilers andestablishacitywidecentralizedheatingsystem.
Remarkable progress has been made in reducing air pollution since China illicit goings-on.
But that is just one layer, so to speak, of the story. What a social scientist can read from it is that it is a world of enormous waste of human resources — so many people out there, especially in the underclass world, hold no jobs and have little hope of upward mobility.
As a witness of the city’s historic boom in the 2000s, I have experience about a different Beijing. During the internet bubble (not entirely a bubble, as it turns out), a fresh graduate from the computer science department of a university could easily land a job in a company based on the East Third Ring Road or in Zhongguancun, the city’s hightech zone, earning a monthly salary more than his or her parents could
photographer in Kunming, Yunnan province
launched a national campaign against smog in 2013.
Three hundred and thirtyeight cities experienced good air quality on almost 90 percent of days last month, according to the monthly air quality report released by the Ministry of Environmental Protection.
The report showed that the concentration of PM2.5 in July was reduced by 19.4 percent year-on-year, while PM10 was down by 18.8 percent. PM2.5 and PM10 refer to hazardous particulate matter.
The government’s Action Plan on Air Pollution Prevention and Control has set emission-reduction targets have made in a whole year.
To a great part, what made them proud of themselves was the house they could earn by working hard in the office. In the beginning of the 2000s, the price for an apartment in Tongzhou district was around 2,000 yuan ($300) per square meter. And with an employment proof from a decent company, one can move into a new house with zero down payment.
It was a time when cab drivers used to say: “I can’t figure out where so many rich boys and girls all come from.” Actually many of them, certainly many in my office, were from obscure corners of some interior provinces.
Those days seem to have long gone, however. The housing price inflation to be met by next year.
However, experts say Beijing appears to have a tough challenge ahead.
The capital has set an air pollution reduction target for PM2.5 at 60 micrograms per cubic meter by next year. The city averaged 80.9 micrograms last year.
Beijing’s solution is a combination of energy structure optimization that around 2008 was the culprit behind a tendency to turn the city into a folded one with fixed layers. An apartment priced at more than 50,000 yuan ($7,500) per square meter is no longer news. Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen, the cities where young people used to gather, have all become so expensive and unfriendly.
Cities being unfriendly to young people are dangerous places. It is not fiction. It is a reality anywhere in the world.
To regain their lost momentum of “mass flourishing”, as what economists may call, local governments must abandon their fiscal greed and have inexpensive housing programs for young workers.
Contact the writer at edzhang@chinadaily.com.cn includes control of coalfired emissions, vehicle emission control and enhanced air quality monitoring.
The capital and its neighboring provinces are set to replace coal-fired heating systems with electrical ones. All coal-fired boilers in key areas of the city will be removed, according to a plan released in April.
reporter in Dalian, Liaoning province