Maglev train in Shanghai's Pudong New Area, shanghai CBD in the distance. /Figureworm Creative
Chinese Internet has a hot topic that will never go out of fashion - cities.
A little bit of searching in the largest Q&A community in China, under topics such as "favorite city", "the city I most want to live in", "the most livable city", there are hundreds of answers, more than thousands of answers, there are sharing, there are fierce debates. From first-tier cities to eighteen-tier small cities, Chinese cities have their own fans, and a thousand people have a thousand city lists.
New Weekly is the first magazine to continue to discuss Chinese cities from the perspective of humanistic life. In 1998, New Weekly launched the "City Charm Ranking", which selected 17 of the most attractive cities in China for inventory, including "the most atmospheric city Beijing", "the most citizen city Wuhan", "the most leisurely city Chengdu", "the most popular city Chongqing", etc., many city portraits are still applicable.
"New Weekly" has been a special topic in some cities over the years.
This issue also points out how Chinese understand cities in the process of urbanization in the next 20 years, and how New Weekly observes cities:
"The personality of Chinese cities is the most vivid and direct expression of Chinese cultural temperament and psychological characteristics, and looking at Chinese cities with perceptual eyes and understanding Chinese cities from a cultural perspective is like walking into Chinese colorful spiritual world, which is meaningful and interesting."
The earliest focus on this cultural phenomenon was the 2000 cover story "The Fourth City", which the new weekly interpreted Chengdu as China's "fourth city", triggering discussions about the ranking of first-tier cities and the tale of Chengdu and Chongqing. Around this time, the "city" became the dominant school of Chinese society, and everyone talked about it.
Chengdu has a strong atmosphere of life and is known as "a city that does not want to go when it comes". /Figureworm vision
Since the 1990s, Chinese have flocked to major cities to work in the south, and urban life has been deeply integrated into the life experience of Chinese. In 2001, when China joined the WTO, the new weekly magazine announced with a special issue of "Urban Rejuvenation": "The urban century has arrived!" "Six years later, for the first time, the proportion of the global urban population exceeded 50%, and more than 3.3 billion people entered urban life. By 2012, China's urban population also surpassed the rural population; in 2020, this proportion exceeded 60% and continues to grow. We are either in the city or on the road to the city.
Since 1996, 25 years after its inception, New Weekly has maintained an observation of the city. In just over two decades, some cities have made great strides and continued to lead the direction of urbanization with the "Guangdong way" (New Weekly's 2003 cover report); some cities have sprung up, transforming from a small border city into an international tourist city (New Weekly's 2013 cover report "Dali, Make People Smaller"),some cities have run, fall, run, and once lost their way on this road and entered New Weekly's 2019 "Lost Cities" list; some cities silently insist on a temperament. Gradually began to lead the trend of urban culture (New Weekly's 2020 cover report "Rediscovering the South"); by 2021, the city will become a Chengdu urban circle, the countryside and nature will be integrated into the urban ecology, and urban life has more imagination space (New Weekly Jiuxing WeChat public account 2021 column "Bay Area Roaming").
Guangzhou Nansha Bridge, located in the center of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, connects Nansha District of Guangzhou city with Shatian Town of Dongguan City. /Visual China
After the epidemic, people's "inner city list" has appeared obvious variables. In June, the British "Economist" released the list of the world's most livable cities in 2021 - last year's list was cancelled due to the epidemic - Auckland, New Zealand won the first place, citing New Zealand's success in containing the new crown epidemic, allowing people to enjoy the same normal life as before the epidemic, so Auckland scored a lot in terms of stability and health care, jumping from sixth to the top of the list, and another new Zealand city, Wellington, also rose from fifteenth to fourth.
It is worth noting that the top five cities are all located in the Asia-Pacific region, and only two of the top ten cities are not Asia-Pacific cities, which has changed significantly from the previous list. The biggest factor is clearly the COVID-19 pandemic, with many cities being deducted from health care scores for their lack of control, and the global livability index falling by as much as 7 points from before the pandemic. On the contrary, in those areas where the epidemic is well controlled, the ranking of cities has generally risen, and Cities such as Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Dalian, Guangzhou, and Qingdao have entered the forefront.
Urbanization may be variable. After the epidemic, many people are eager to change the life of the Stone Shi Forest, and the easiest way is to leave the city and flee to the open towns and villages. According to a survey by a British consulting firm, more than 40% of Europeans want to flee "first-tier cities" such as London, Paris, Milan, Madrid and Berlin. Some city managers and architects also hope to take this opportunity to promote the urban planning revolution and make cities more suitable for human habitation.
Auckland, the capital of New Zealand. /Figureworm Creative
What happened to Chinese urban life in the midst of this urbanization process? Will the road of urbanization continue to approach 100%? Where will there be an ideal life between the city and the countryside in the next 25 years?
On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of The New Weekly, we interviewed urbanists, actors, writers, artists, ordinary citizens and other urban residents, and went into urban spaces such as museums, bookstores, and coffee shops to try to answer these questions.
Professor Wang Jixian has long been concerned about China's urban planning and has put forward many constructive suggestions on the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area in recent years. Born in Beijing, studied in Hong Kong, Toronto, briefly lived in Paris, Vancouver, Oxford, Munich, Istanbul and other cities, and has lived in the highly urbanized metropolis of Hong Kong for a long time, he has a deep understanding of urban planning and urban life.
Wang Jixian, born in Beijing in 1954, has a 78-level bachelor's degree in production layout from the Department of Planning and System of Chinese University, a master's degree in geography from the University of Hong Kong, and a doctorate in geography from the University of Toronto. His research interests include the evolution of China's port cities and the geography of transport hubs, and he is the author of "Interaction and Development of China's Port Cities" and "World-Class Hubs: Hong Kong's External Traffic".
Interview/Thank you
Editor/Shaw Bong
Why has Chengdu been livable for thousands of years?
The natural geographical environment is the first.
New Weekly: According to the data of the seventh national census, Guangdong has increased its population by more than 21 million in the past 10 years, the first in the country, and the scale of the permanent population has ranked first in the country for 14 consecutive years since 2007. In early 2000, New Weekly launched a cover story called "Guangdong Way", which talked about the economic and cultural characteristics of Guangdong. Now it seems that Guangdong has what unique advantages and methods to attract a large number of people every year?
Wang Jixian: Whether a place is attractive, the first is the inclusiveness of culture; the second is job opportunities and development prospects, including policy support; the third is the living environment, including climate factors, urban services and personnel quality. For example, Shenzhen is a typical immigrant city, the people here do not speak Cantonese, but Shenzhen is precisely the fastest and largest number of new immigrants in the whole of Guangdong. Inclusivity may be the "innate" of the city, such as Shenzhen; it may also be the precipitation of a long-term open culture, such as Guangzhou.
New Weekly: There have always been many opinions on how much a city should accommodate, some people say that the city is already too crowded, some people say that our city is not big enough. You pointed out in a TED lecture that the population density of some urban areas in China is far greater than that of the world's first-tier cities. The population of New York, Tokyo, London and other cities has also been expanding, and the development of high-density metropolises like this will be the development direction of Chinese cities?
Wang Jixian: While our experts and scholars are still debating how big the city should be and how much population it can accommodate, a large number of our cities have built large areas of high-density communities and have entered ultra-high-density societies, such as the Nanshan District of Shenzhen. Dalian, Kunming, Guiyang, which city is not? The advantages of ultra-high density do not need to be talked about much, and people who work or live there naturally understand that the most important thing can be summarized by the word "convenient".
What we need to pay more attention to is whether high-density cities will have big problems. The global pandemic is a warning sign that high density requires a high level of governance and management to be sustainable. Not only epidemic prevention, but also design and emergency response measures such as carbon emissions, water supply and drainage, power supply, lighting, traffic congestion and other aspects.
Shenzhen is a typical high-density city. /Figureworm Creative
New Weekly: You once used hong Kong's Haiyi Peninsula as an example to illustrate the possibility of high-density livability in the city, but in mainland cities, it seems unlikely to build a subway station inside a community, many large communities are even closed, and the owners do not support a completely open community. In this case, how should high-density communities plan to live more comfortably? At present, which cities and communities in China can be exemplary in terms of high-density livability?
Wang Jixian: I have also thought about this question many times. There should be a way, that is, first in the community to form a diversified space, there are a variety of services and cultural facilities, and then let these facilities gradually open to the outside world, the formation of the openness of the community. For example, there are clinics and clubs in the community, and the internal and external charges are slightly different.
Of course, this involves cultural and ideological two-way choices, as well as the trust of society as a whole. For example, a subway station can only appear (in a neighborhood) if developers, designers, urban planners, and future residents of a neighborhood agree that commuting by subway is better for the city. Shenzhen has built some of these communities, such as a residential area at the mouth of the Longhua subway station on Line 4.
New Weekly: In Hong Kong, the city center is highly populated, but it takes half an hour to reach country parks and beaches; in Singapore, in addition to having beautiful suburbs and parks, their HDB flats are also designed to be very livable, and they are not as cramped to live in Hong Kong. Is the combination of the two ideal development directions for high-density cities?
Wang Jixian: Although I mentioned some of the advantages of these two cities in my speech at TED Guangzhou, I think that there are so many cities in China, each of which should have its own beauty, reflect the local sense as much as possible, and be diverse and inclusive, less personal intervention, the most ideal.
For example, Chongqing, why can it become an internet celebrity city? It is not the most advanced building square, but the cross-river cable car, the city railway, the comic-like stilt buildings, the large graffiti, the completely illogical cross-level walkway, and the uninhibited Chongqing personality that matches these diverse and colorful colors.
Chongqing Hongya Cave. /Figureworm Creative
New Weekly: Qipu found that the population of many second-tier cities has exceeded 10 million people, and with the further liberalization of urban settlement policies, the population of first- and second-tier cities is estimated to continue to increase. In your opinion, what will happen to the urban landscape in the next two or three decades?
Wang Jixian: Looking at the current policy direction, one of my basic observations is that China's population will further gather in rich cities. The reasons for the further population agglomeration are not only the "stronger" urban competition, the more relaxed personnel flow environment, and the improvement of the accessibility of transportation on the large geographical scale of high-speed rail.
China's high-speed rail not only makes it easier to reach the connected cities in a shorter time, but also the fare is much lower than that of similar railway networks in foreign countries, which is conducive to the flow of more people between cities, which is objectively beneficial to metropolises, because cities with good financial conditions have more employment opportunities on the one hand, and the quality of public space and public services on the other hand. But cities that are not connected by high-speed rail may lose their competitiveness.
The Yinxi high-speed railway passes through Tianshui Town, Qingyang Huan County, Gansu Province, and is the first section of the Yinxi high-speed railway into Gansu. The Yinxi high-speed railway connects Wuzhong in Ningxia with Xi'an in Shaanxi. /Figureworm Creative
New Weekly: China's urban population is highly concentrated east of the Hu Huan Yong Line, and how the cities west of the Hu Huan Yong Line develop has been discussed online in recent years. For example, the city in the northwest has 985 universities, but it has not become a population-attractive city like Xi'an and Chengdu. What do you think about this?
Wang Jixian: I personally think that the so-called "breaking through the Hu Huanyong line" is a false proposition. Why has Chengdu been livable for thousands of years? The natural geographical environment is the first. We are a big country, and like other world powers, the United States, Canada, and Russia, there are large areas of land that are not suitable for human habitation.
Will there be geographers in Russia who draw a so-and-so line between its European part and Siberia, and posterity will say that it is going to break through? Similarly, Canada hires a few high-paying volunteers to work in the northern Yukon for a few years each year, but never proposes to emigrate north and open up new cities. These are all very simple truths: not every region will have "development", and some areas are well protected and sustainable.
Chengdu People's Park Heming Tea House. /Figureworm Creative
Chengdu citizens drink tea at the Heming Tea House. /Figureworm Creative
The embodiment of culture in the city,
It should be a superimposed form.
New Weekly: You once said that the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area is an OPP, "cross-word and integrated into it". Taking the metro planning network of the Greater Bay Area as an example, it will span guangzhou, Shenzhen, Foshan, Dongguan, Huizhou, Zhongshan and other major cities in the future, covering a population of more than 50 million. What experiences can we learn from the construction of a metropolitan transportation network of this scale? What are the difficulties to be overcome in order to achieve it?
Wang Jixian: There should be only one - the Greater Tokyo Metropolitan Area. However, it is not a "subway network", but a railway network, and it does not have to go underground. If you look for it on the Internet, you can find a very large map of the Tokyo Circle Railway, in fact, it is a superposition of railway networks serving different scales, in addition to some private enterprise railways that are not reflected in the map.
The advantage of connecting the rail network is that cities pay for their own parts. The difficulty lies in whether you have thought about the connection and how to connect when planning and designing. Our country is very advanced in software, and in the future, hardware will be connected, and mobile phone tickets will cover multiple cities and systems, which is not a problem. But many of our subway systems, station design and construction units are not the last operators, so many of the designs are not really from the user's point of view. This must be improved.
Luoyang Metro. /Figureworm Creative
New Weekly: With the rollout of high-speed rail and subway networks in major cities, "TOD Station City" has become an important path for domestic urban expansion and urban renewal. However, in recent years, many people have pointed out that the location of some high-speed rail stations, airports and other transportation hubs is 20 or 30 kilometers or even 40 kilometers away from the city center, and TOD has only "stations" instead of "cities", which is inconvenient for business. What do you think about this? Is the Japanese TOD model more successful because those sites are closer to the city center? What are the most important factors for the success of TOD?
Wang Jixian: Since the 1990s, I have been explaining TOD in class. Today the CONCEPT of TOD has been popularized in China, which is very good. However, there are two things to keep in mind:
First, TOD usually refers to the "transit-oriented development" of railway or subway stations within a city, rather than the regional-scale intercity or even high-speed rail stations. Because the support of the development of TOD lies in the commuter population. And high-speed rail stations, especially high-speed rail hubs, such as Shanghai Hongqiao and Guangzhou South Railway Station, the passengers who use this station are mainly not commuters. The success of the Hongqiao Business District lies in the fact that it attracts regional enterprises and businesses, such as convention and exhibitions, while the location of Guangzhou South Railway Station does not attract regional enterprises.
Second, the purpose of the development of TOD is to form a dotted living and working space in the form of a dotted and linear living and working space through the development of an environmentally friendly railway network and a "sugar gourd string" land development method. In particular, note that this is the opposite of the "car into the home" model. We can't think of TOD as just a property development around a railway station.
Whether such a "station" can be built into a point where business and housing are exuberant (that is, what you call "city"),to a large extent depends on whether the entire city has implemented the policy of "bus priority". Public transportation (including subway) is preferred, and there are restrictions on car travel. And it's not just about the transportation system. In different areas of the city, the community needs to set different "allocation ratios", that is, each suite is equipped with several parking spaces, and the allocation ratio is lower near the subway station.
In order to cater to buyers' tastes, many of our developers today try to improve the ratio of allocation, and the result is that TOD has become a superficial article, and even an excuse for developers to increase floors and density. Of course, it's hard to get families who buy cars to give up. This detour has gone, and it will probably take many years to come back. Now from fuel vehicles to new energy vehicles, developers would rather install more charging piles than introduce subway stations, that is, the future of the country will encourage the purchase of cars. In this way, it is even more difficult for TOD to succeed.
On August 18, 2020, at Shanghai Hongqiao Railway Station, a huge poster was hung in the waiting hall: Welcome to Shanghai. /Figureworm Creative
New Weekly: When introducing the urban renewal experience of developed countries in China, it is often mentioned that a livable urban community should create a mixed ecology of commercial and residential, with perfect community services and public facilities, and facilitate residents to walk, including todd stations inside and outside the city. At present, one of the most criticized places in mainland cities is that it is inconvenient to walk and ride, so it has become a commendable place for motor vehicles in major cities such as Shenzhen, Shanghai, Hangzhou, and Chengdu to take the initiative to give way to pedestrians. What else can today's cities do to improve "walkability" and "walk-friendliness"?
Wang Jixian: This is a very good question. The mixed diversity of ecology can increase the demand for walking. In addition, from the planning aspect, it should be in line with today's people's pursuit of health, design fitness channels, and attract citizens to walk more, and they also have this willingness. For example, the construction of pedestrian bridges from residential areas to subway stations or shopping malls not only has a rainproof roof, but also a slope design that is easy to walk.
Guangzhou Haixin Bridge opened on June 25, 2021, connecting the tip of the island on the east side of Ersha Island in Yuexiu District and the west side of Guangzhou Tower in Haizhu District, and is a pedestrian-only bridge. /Visual China
New Weekly: The rapid development of urbanization has been followed by criticism from the side of a thousand cities. But in recent years, some cities with local characteristics such as Changsha, Liuzhou, Chongqing and so on have stood out and become Internet celebrity cities, what do you think this will be for China's urban development? What role can the city's internet popularity play in the development of this city?
Wang Jixian: I don't know too well the meaning of "internet celebrity". I think if it is a personal public account, its description of the city can have a good effect on tourism. To some extent, it will make people reflect that in the past, the way cities advertised in the TV media was problematic, and everyone wanted to see real and interesting stories.
From my personal contact, the problem with the thousand cities side is that the current planning has a problem with the perception of "what is a good city". Some people think that beautiful hardware, such as dazzling overpasses that make drivers dizzy, or strange super-tall buildings, is a good city. In fact, livability doesn't have much to do with these.
I think that the embodiment of culture in the city should be a superimposed form, for example, I lived in Toronto, it is a city that spreads like a pie, and history slowly unfolds like an annual ring throughout the process.
Hangzhou. /Figureworm Creative
Cities should offer a lot of different options,
This includes choosing what kind of person to be.
New Weekly: When it comes to the best cities to live in, many people will talk about Chengdu. In the 20 years from 1998 to 2018, New Weekly has named Chengdu as the "Fourth City", "Leisure Capital", "China's First Happy City", etc., and now the Chengdu-Chongqing Urban Agglomeration is also regarded as the fourth pole of China's development.
Wang Jixian: With deep cultural roots, Chengdu has not worried about food and clothing for a long time in history, which has produced an endogenous and unique urban temperament. When I arrived in Chengdu about 20 years ago, one of the feelings was that there were no fewer cars on the road than in Beijing, but everyone didn't pay attention to what kind of car they were driving, and they just had a car; they didn't care if they were fast or not, they could get there. This is in stark contrast to Beijing and Tianjin.
Chengdu gives me an impression that it has a bamboo background color. Today's "new Chinese" designs, from architecture to furniture to clothing and other decorations, Chengdu is a bellwether.
New Weekly: There is a voice that believes that our cities still lack a "sense of urbanity", for example, many areas look like the combination of urban and rural areas, in a state of barbaric growth, only survival and no life. You have lived in many cities, what do you think is the real "sense of the city"?
Wang Jixian: I like this very much. Let me try to summarize the "sense of the city":
First, there are "groups of strangers" who are easy to get along with and trust. From a relatively close circle of acquaintances to a city, the first thing to become an urban person is to contact strangers. If you live and work in an environment of complete strangers, it is terrifying not to have trust. I remember when I went to Hong Kong to study for a master's degree in 1985, I met a stranger at the entrance of the campus, and she worked tirelessly to send me to a dormitory far away from the campus. In a place where you are unaccompanied, no one dares to offend, and the rule of law and the professional ethics of strangers can make you let go of your trepidation and gradually integrate into this society.
The subway is one of the spaces with the most characteristics of the city. /Figureworm Creative
Second, there is diversity and diversification of options. Cities should offer a lot of different options, including choosing what kind of person to be: you can be an otaku, you can go to bars every day to socialize; you can drive, you can also ride a bicycle or take the bus subway; you can make up your mind to find a place to buy medicine to treat yourself, or you can go to a good quality hospital to see what is going on.
Third, convenient ways of interacting with entities. In today's world where everyone is online, cities provide physical interpersonal opportunities, you can meet many different people, meet people who are related to you, the odds are also relatively high.
Finally, there is inclusivity. The diversified choices mentioned above are a concrete embodiment of inclusiveness, such as strangers do not interfere with your privacy, and basically do not interfere with your clothing and dress, which does not affect the individual behavior of others. This kind of atmosphere that allows people to get used to living in a strange crowd in a standardized way, and at the same time, because they can find their own choices, is the sense of belonging, which is the sense of urbanity.
Along the criss-crossing streets and rivers, you can delve into the fabric of a city's life. The picture shows the dragon boat race during the Dragon Boat Festival in the river in the city. /Figureworm Creative
New Weekly: You grew up in Beijing, and later lived in Hong Kong for a long time due to your academic and work relationships, and also lived in major cities abroad. In your opinion, what are the differences in lifestyles in these cities? Having lived in Hong Kong for many years, what does the city give you?
Wang Jixian: The cities I have lived in for a long time are Beijing and Hong Kong, as well as Toronto. Relatively short ones are Vancouver, and even shorter, there are Paris and another small French city, and there are about 50 cities outside China. For me, the most important thing about a good city is inclusion and diversity. Medium-sized cities like Vancouver, Oxford, Munich are livable, but I prefer large cities like Paris, Beijing, Xi'an, Chengdu, Shanghai, Stockholm, Istanbul. The cultural inclusivity of Istanbul, you can feel in their inhabitants, in their protection of artifacts of different backgrounds.
Hong Kong is a relatively extreme city, most people are very practical, looking for all kinds of fun in the details of life around them, a bit like the style of Hong Kong films, many people have the brand of heavy business culture, pay attention to the value of exchange and the efficiency of doing things. At the same time, Hong Kong is also a very well-managed city. A British colleague of mine said 20 years ago that she expected the MTR to go to London to manage the underground there. This wish actually came true this year.
Hong Kong, dense buildings. /Figureworm Creative
As a Beijinger, my favorite thing about Hong Kong is the efficiency and reliability of the people here. However, it is also a city that has been deformed by the real estate industry. There is a word in Hong Kong called "getting on the car", that is, first-time buyers can barely afford to buy a house, which may be as small as 30 square meters. Because in the long run, house prices have been rising, and if you don't get in the car, you may not be able to go up. On the contrary, those who get on the car always expect property prices to continue to rise. In this way, the society is divided into two groups, the car and the car, and the higher the house price, the greater the social fragmentation.
New Weekly: There are often some surveys on the Internet, such as what are the three favorite cities and five cities, and New Weekly has also launched a special topic of "Inner City List". What kind of city you like sometimes represents a person's values, sense of identity, cultural taste, etc. What kind of city do you like? If you had to choose, what would be your top five cities?
Wang Jixian: Beijing, Paris, Stockholm, Chengdu, Barcelona, the main reason is their cultural heritage, diversity and inclusiveness, style, livability.
Beijing Yanbao Xie Street. /Figureworm Creative
For me, the first point of livability is the natural climatic conditions, I like the city with four distinct seasons; followed by the convenience of life, Paris, Stockholm, Chengdu, Barcelona these places belong to the city where life is very convenient, the neighborhood is relatively small, but all the organs are complete, go downstairs to change a watch battery, buy a small thing is very convenient.
Finally, I love cities with a sense of history and culture. In my opinion, Beijing is one of the few cities with history and can change and iterate, in fact, it is very inclusive of culture, you can see that Beijing has different nightclubs, bars, songs that can be heard, people who see are different, they don't have to follow the trend, they can retain their personality in Beijing.
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