Source:

01-13-2006 17:49

Shanghai is China's biggest city and has the country's largest urban population. In the early 1930's, Shanghai was renowned for its financial and textile industries. It later became China's industrial and commercial base after the founding of the People's Republic of China. Shanghai inherited with slums filled with migrants from many different areas during its development into a modern city. In today's documentary, we will follow the life of an old resident of Shanghai's shantytowns, and trace the changes to his housing in the half century from 1949 to the present day.

Although the residents patrolled carefully at night, these areas suffered from more than 80% of the fires in Shanghai in 2003. In contrast with its rapidly increasing GDP, Shanghai's city planning lagged far behind. The large areas covered by slums limited residents' quality of life and restricted Shanghai's further development. Without improving people's living conditions and protecting the environment at the same time, further economic growth could not be sustained.

The slums had come about decades earlier. Many residents had lived there for a long time and had grown accustomed to their way of life. Moving out would bring many changes to these residents. The night stools, coal-burning stoves and old house numbers used to symbolize their owners' humble position. When the time to depart came, these all became precious reminders of their former lives.

Shanghai's GDP rocketed to well above the national average in the 1990's, and it continues to outperform that of any other city in China. This made it possible to demolish large slum areas and relocate the inhabitants. The situation of other regions is markedly different. Residents of China's much poorer northeast faced many similar problems, but had to tackle them without the benefit of Shanghai's powerhouse economy.

 

Editor:Wang Ping