Looming megacities force Chinese leaders to grope for new policies (fwd)

[Stephen E Philion]

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> Looming megacities force Chinese leaders to grope for new policies
>
>      BEIJING, June 27 (AFP) - A vision of hundreds of megacities in
>      the new millennium is forcing China's leadership to grope for new
>      planning policies as the urban population skyrockets.
>
>      As more than 6,000 architects converge on the Chinese capital for
>      the 20th World Congress of the international Union of Architects
>      (UIA), minds are being concentrated on the movement of people
>      into cities -- especially in the world's most populous nation.
>
>      "Up to now the preservation of old cities hasn't been a priority.
>      The preoccupation has been with economic development and to let
>      builders do what they want," Michel Le Duc, urban planner and
>      adviser to the Chinese government on urban renewal who was
>      attending the UIA congress, told AFP.
>
>      "They are just now putting into place some policies to preserve
>      some areas," he said, citing the Niujie Moslem quarter in the
>      south of Beijing.
>
>      China's urban population shot up from 301.91 million in 1990 to
>      359.50 million in 1996, according to government statistics.
>
>      Millions of migrants who flood major cities looking for work
>      swell the number of town-dwellers without showing up in the
>      official count.
>
>      "Urban populations are growing three times faster than the world
>      population. By the end of the century more than half the world's
>      people will be living in cities," Wu Liangyong, professor of
>      architecture at Qinghua University, told the UIA congress which
>      he chaired.
>
>      Twenty years of breakneck economic growth in China's cities has
>      led to haphazard construction at the whim of local officials,
>      often leading to a glut of office space and hotel rooms while
>      ordinary people still live in makeshift shacks with no bathroom.
>
>      Beijing has seen the virtual obliteration of its traditional
>      courtyard-style houses to make way for high-rise development.
>
>      While the inhabitants are often happy to have a modern and
>      spacious apartment, they are frequently relocated miles away from
>      their original communities where transport infrastructure lags
>      behind development.
>
>      Foreign architects visiting Beijing for the congress expressed
>      shock at the destruction of the courtyards, or hutongs.
>
>      One British architect said it was "a social disaster" while
>      others simply shook their heads in disbelief.
>
>      "It is obviously difficult to combine the conservation of
>      national heritage with economic imperatives," commented Jean
>      Nouvel, a French architect who designed the Institut du Monde
>      Arabe in Paris.
>
>      In an attempt to address the problem, Beijing's city government
>      has appointed Chinese-American award-winning architect Lu Weiming
>      as adviser, whose job is to "preserve the waning beauty of the
>      ancient capital."
>
>      "The municipal government has received numerous complaints that
>      the constantly increasing number of skyscrapers overshadows
>      ancient palaces, temples and hutongs," Xinhua news agency
>      reported.
>
>      Wu, while barely mentioning China in his keynote speech to the
>      UIA, blasted the influence of "consumer democracy" on
>      architecture the world over.
>
>      In an apparent reference to the penchant for skyscrapers among
>      provincial and city officials in China, he said the property
>      market had "created the illusion among laymen and professionals
>      that symbols of modernity are the only routes to modernisation."
>
>      Architects also said China was still searching for a modern style
>      for its new buildings, which currently consists of sticking a
>      traditional Chinese roof on top of a high-rise building, or
>      decorating it with fake Corinthian pillars.
>
>      "Beijing is very ugly and so is Taipei," said Taiwan-born
>      architect Deng Kunyan. "They think if they stick a Mandarin hat
>      on top of a skyscraper that gives it Chinese characteristics."
>
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