XINHUA: "Urban villages" - Beijing City's building management's chronic illness

This one's long so i'm going to do it in 2 parts. Songyuan City has these villages - at least before we left it did, it's quite possible they're all gone now. There's a post, quite a good post by this "blog"s standards, and two photo albums full of up-close photos of these places in their day of reckoning (the second one has more).

"URBAN VILLAGES" - BEIJING CITY BUILDING MANAGEMENT'S CHRONIC ILLNESS - Xinhua Net - Beijing Channel - Masterminds: Su Huizhi & Li Xu - Reporter: Li Puquan - Editor/producer: Wang Jing

In recent years "urban villages" in the Beijing area have taken on the form of a malignant cycle: every time a rumours of a demolition go round it sets of a new surge of illegal construction; making demolition even harder, and development and transformation slower, and because of the demolitions, the living conditions and public order problems arising from the petitions issue become very obvious.

According to statistics from the capital's Social Security Comprehensive Management Committe Office, in just 4 areas - Chaoyang, Haidian, Fengtai and Shijing Shan - there are 331 of these "urban villages", occupying 950,000,000 square metres and holding a population of 715,000 in 119,000 illegal dwellngs. Illegal dwellings occupy 1,936,600 square metres, with a permanent population of 38,000.

A NEIGHBOURHOOD CADRE'S 8 YEARS OF ANXIETY

"Urban Villages" are an unharmonious phenomenon arising in the course of a city's development . In a narrow sense, it refers to rural villages undergoing the process of urbanisation; due to all or most of the arable land being commandeered [for development], farmers have become [city] residents, but are still living in their original villages which have evolved into residential neighbourhoods - these are also known as "inner-city villages".

Situated between Beijing's 3rd and 4th South Ring Roads in Fengtai District, Majiabao Sanqi is a typical "urban village". The reporter investigating found this 3 square kilometre piece of land surrounded by tall buildings and skyscrapers; everywhere were higgledy-piggledy self-made "handshake houses" and "kiss houses". Sewage flows in front of the houses, rubbish lies everywhere, and foul smells assault the nostrils. The spaces between the buildings are disorderly - in some cases two bikes wouldn't be able to pass each other - and many have no street numbers. In places the 4-5 metre-wide fire-access road has also been blocked or even stuffed full, and a fire engine would have no chance of getting in. Many people who live here have come from outside places to find work or start a business.

[to be continued]

Original link: “城中村”：北京城市建设管理的“痼疾”