Mingyue talked about | Mayor Gong Zheng's words, a thousand pounds

Photo: Chen Zhengbao/Photo: Sixth Session of the 15th Shanghai Municipal People's Congress

Shen Yueming/Wen

A sentence in the government work report delivered by Mayor Gong Zheng this morning deeply attracted me: (2022) complete the transformation of a piece of secondary old houses in the central urban area. A short sentence, but turned a page of history.

In other words, the old reform of Shanghai that lasted for 30 years, and the "demolition and relocation" that the old Shanghai often talked about, finally entered the end of this year. In the future, the focus will be on the renovation of old houses, such as the renewal of the quality of living in Pengpu New Village, which is a representative project.

When I watched "Love Myth", I didn't think it was very real. Where are there so many people in the prime of life, even with children, living in creaking centuries-old houses, shouldn't they all live in community apartments? Friends laughed at me for being too real. In my opinion, most of the old houses in the downtown area of Shanghai are inhabited by the elderly and tenants. In the old below the second level, it is popularly known as a shantytown simple house, and the citizens living in it are almost all the elderly and migrant workers who rent houses. If there is still a hint of emotion in living in Shikumen, living in a shantytown simple house is completely painful. And this kind of pain, middle-aged and older Shanghai citizens more or less have a profound experience.

In Shanghai before the 1990s, it was not unusual for three generations to live in 10 square meters. The most difficult family I've ever heard of, can only sleep alone in the middle of the night and sleep alone in the second half of the night. Sleep in hammocks, sleep on bunk beds, sleep on the floor, sleep in stairwells, as long as you can lie down is a bed. The toilet is the standard in the shantytown simple house, and it is good to have a public toilet. The briquette stove and the tiger stove, although full of fireworks, are the past that Shanghai never wants to return to.

In the past 30 years, countless Shanghainese have walked out of the pavilion, out of the stove and the shawl, and moved into a spacious and beautiful, well-equipped commercial house. The data shows that the per capita living area of Shanghai cities and towns has increased from 5.92 square meters in 1986 to 37.2 square meters (construction area) in 2019, which is a real leap forward development. However, by the end of 2020, there were still about 1.1 million square meters of houses below the second grade in Shanghai, with about 56,000 residents. By the end of this year, both figures will return to zero, which will be a milestone step in the history of Shanghai's urban development.

In recent years, Shanghai has been put on the fast lane. Yangpu and Huangpu, two second-level old "big households" launched a tough battle. Among them, Yangpu District fully completed the collection and signing of the old li below the second level last year, and this year will enter the tail-sweeping stage, including sporadic old li. In recent years, Huangpu District has been speeding up its efforts, and the appearance of the old city is changing with each passing day. While preserving historical features and precious cultural relics, a large number of old houses and broken houses that are far behind the living conditions of contemporary people have disappeared into the footsteps of the times. "Poor Street" and "Seventy-two Tenants" have become history, but we should not regret it, but like those "relocated households" who are happy to move, cheer for the development of the times and for a better life.