RESEARCH REPORT

JANUARYCITIES
URBAN REVITALISATION IN CHINESE 2010

RICSRESEARCH
Urban revitalization
in traditional
neighbourhoods in
Chinese cities
Elisabete A. Silva, Nan Song and Ning Wu
University of Cambridge, United Kingdom

Research
1
About the authors

Dr Elisabete A. Silva
is at the Department of Land Economy of the University of Cambridge and is a Fellow of
Robinson College. With more than 100 publications in peer review journals, books/books
chapters, conference proceedings, and a research track record of approximately 16 years,
(both at the public and private sector), her research interests are centred on the application
of new technologies to spatial planning in particular city and metropolitan dynamic
modelling through time.

Ms Nan Song
is currently a PhD student in Department of Land Economy, University of Cambridge.
She was awarded her bachelors’ degrees in Urban and Regional Planning and Economics
in Beijing University, and then went on to study for her MPhil and PhD in Department of
Land Economy, University of Cambridge. Her research interests are urban regeneration,
inter-city competition and collaboration in China and European countries.

Mr Ning Wu
is a full time PhD student in department of Land Economy, Cambridge University. Mr. Wu
got his Masters in computer application, and his BA in computer science, both in China. His
research interests explore artificial intelligence solutions for urban land dynamics, particularly
in cellular automata, agent based models and genetic algorithm-based urban modeling.

©RICS – RICS January 2010

ISBN: 978-1-84219-535-2

Published by:
RICS
Parliament Square
London SW1P 3AD
United Kingdom

The views expressed by the author(s)

are not necessarily those of RICS nor
any body connected with RICS.
Neither the authors, nor RICS accept
any liability arising from the use of
this publication.

This work was funded by the

RICS Education Trust, a registered
charity established by RICS in 1955
to support research and education
in the field of surveying.
 URBAN REVITALISATION IN CHINESE CITIES

Acknowledgements

We are very thankful to the following researchers: We are also very thankful to the following students who kindly
helped us with the questionnaire surveys:
Tongji University (architecture and urban planning college)
WANG Qian
Professor ZHANG Guanzeng
ZHANG Beirong
Professor PENG Zhenwei
HUANG Qiong
Professor SONG Xiaodong
XIA Wannuo
Dr. PANG Lei
ZHOU Hemeng

Shanghai Urban Planning Institute BAI Yang

Chief planner: XIONG Luxia WANG Chuan

Senior planner: SHEN Guoping ZUO Mingzhi

CHEN Zhiduan
Pudong urban planning and design institute
YI Jie
Director WU Qingdong
XU Suyuan
Renmin University (Department of urban HAN Cuicui
planning management)
LV Di
Head: Professor: YE Yumin
ZAI Xin
Deputy Head: ZHENG Guo
CUI Lina
Research Staff:
LI Dongquan
MA Qingyuan
YANG Liya
QIN Bo

Peking University Contact:

Prof. CHAI Yanwei Elisabete Silva

Department of Land Economy
Prof. FENG Changchun
University of Cambridge
Prof. FENG Jian 19 Silver Street
Cambridge CB3 9EP
Prof. CHEN Yaohua
United Kingdom
Prof. TONG Xin
es424@cam.ac.uk
PhD students: ZHANG

Beijing Municipal Institute of City Planning and Design

Director Weiling Shi
Engineer: Yizhen Gu
Senior Engineer HE Suprina
Deputy Chief Planner WANG Yajun

03
Contents

Executive summary 05

01 Introduction 06

02 Social Impacts of Urban Regeneration and the

Concept of Neighbourhood in the West and in China 10
2.1 The study on social impacts of urban regeneration in the west 10
2.2 The concept of neighbourhood in the west 12
2.3 The study on the social impacts of urban regeneration in China 13
2.4 The concept of neighbourhood in China 14

03 Studied Areas and Methodology of Analysis 16

3.1 An introduction of the studied areas 16
3.2 Methodology and data collection 19

04 Data Analysis: The Neighbourhood Social-Spatial changes 24

4.1 The physical environment 24
4.2 The profile of the residents 30

05 Data Analysis: Neighbourhood daily-life Changes 36

5.1 Ease of access 36
5.2 Sense of safety 38

06 Data Analysis: Neighbourhood Relationship Changes 42

6.1 Neighbourhood interaction 42
6.2 Neighbourhood attachment 44
6.3 Sense of public participation 46

07 Conclusions and Discussion 48

References 50

04

Executive summary
Urban regeneration in China has moved in the post-reform
period from being a government-financed process to a property-
led one. Large-scale regeneration projects in traditional areas
have generated social changes alongside the built environment.
The research examined patterns of social change in three areas:
• traditional neighbourhoods which have not been redeveloped
• p
 eripheral communities which were developed in order
to house residents who had been displaced by urban
redevelopment in the city centre
• c
 ity-centre residential communities which had been
developed within a regeneration project to replace the
existing poor-quality traditional housing.
What the research found was that property-led urban
regeneration has intensified processes of gentrification. While
there have been definite improvement sin the physical quality
of the housing, this has been at the expense of a loss of sense
of neighbourhood attachment and a sense of safety in the
newly-developed areas, whether they be in the city-centre or
in the peripheries. Key conclusions to emerge are as follows:
• F
 irstly, there should be greater involvement of
government organisations at the local and regional
scale in the regeneration of traditional areas, as well
as universities and other relevant organizations. This would
mean that the government and other stakeholders, together
with real estate developers, should be fully involved in the
regeneration activities, as leaving everything to real estate
developers may lead to future problems. However, in this,
the role of the market cannot be ignored.
• S
 econdly, while an overall master plan is important to
coordinate approaches, an incremental approach to
the regeneration of traditional areas should be adopted.
Houses in traditional areas should not be simply demolished
and rebuilt on a large scale. Instead, it is better to repair and
reconstruct them according to individual conditions on a
case by case basis.
• T
 hirdly, the rhythm and rate of the regeneration of
traditional areas should be controlled. Since property-led
regeneration was introduced at a dramatic rate during the
1990s, local government did not have enough time to react
to the unpredicted problems that arose from the process.
Therefore, a long-term plan should be mapped out to control
the regeneration process, which can take account of the
interests of all stakeholders.
URBAN REVITALISATION IN CHINESE CITIES
• F
 ourthly, re-housing a neighbourhood in its original
location is seen as the most effective and acceptable
way of regenerating traditional areas. Social structures
can be maintained with the original households and
traditional appearances. Therefore, efforts should be made
to develop financial structures that allow developers to
make redevelopment and re-construction of these areas
cost-effective. However, if it is impossible to keep everyone
together in their original location, it is better to relocate them to
locations that are as close as possible to their original location.
• F
 ifthly, if it is decided to create new residential
communities, then more open space and neighbourhood-
based activities should be provided. Most residents in
the newly developed neighbourhood on the periphery of
Shanghai, Shibo Jiayuan, appreciated their courtyards and
plentiful open space, not only for the convenience and fun
that they brought to their daily lives, but also for the space
that they provided for exercise and entertainments, where
they were able to meet and socialise with their neighbours.
In contrast, in the same type of neighbourhood in Beijing,
North Shaoyaoju, residents complained that the lack of open
space within and nearby the community greatly reduced their
chance to socialise with their neighbours. Moreover, societies
and neighbourhood-based activities, such as choruses,
get-togethers, and English classes could help neighbours to
get to know each other in the newly-built community as well.
• L
 ast but not least, the past experience of public
participation and community-led regeneration in the
West should be learned from (both in terms of the strengths,
but also in terms of the challenges it represents). Alongside
the strong willingness of residents to participate in urban
regeneration, the views and opinions of residents should
actively be sought. It was noticeable that in the consultation
on the on-going property-led regeneration in both Beijing
and Shanghai, residents did not simply respond in a negative
fashion but put forward constructive criticism of the
proposals, many of which echoed the concerns expressed
about property-led urban regeneration in the West. These
considerations prove that it is time for the public to
participate and have an influence in the process of urban
regeneration in China.
05
01 Introduction
There has been a tradition in many Chinese cities that the
older city areas have been preserved during the course of
development and re-development. These areas are generally
located in the downtown areas and efforts have been made
to maintain the traditional architectural styles. Some of the
existing structures, such as ancient city gates, lanes and
buildings are indeed still used by local residents. In these
areas, the predominant housing type tends to be a traditional
style of low-rise building, which is associated with lower quality
housing conditions and public facilities. A large proportion of
this housing is owned by the local housing bureau and assigned
to individual households. These traditional areas are also
characterised by an ageing, disadvantaged and often less
wealthy population, with a high degree of stability of the
population. It is often the case that a number of generations
of the same family live in the same traditional area. As a result,
there is a strong sense of ‘community’ in these areas.
A major trend in urban development in China has been the
growth of property-led regeneration, where the state relies
on the private sector to provide the driving force for urban
regeneration (Turok, 1992). This represents a fundamental
change from the past, where the state had a far greater role in
urban regeneration, to the current situation where property-led
generation supported by the private sector has instead become
the dominant approach.
Before the 1990s, most regeneration projects were funded by
the government or, in some cases, by state-owned enterprises,
but by the 1990s, the financial demands on the state were
becoming too great and, as a result, the projects were often
insufficiently funded and poorly executed (Liu and Wu, 2006).
Largely as a result of this lack of investment, many of these
older urban areas did not see substantial change and began to
fall into decline.
As a consequence of the wider adoption of market mechanisms,
the 1990s saw a change in the nature of state-led urban
development, whereby market forces were used to identify
the most appropriate land use and functional structures.
Before this period, China had a typical centrally planned
economy, in which urban land was owned by the state and
there was no land market by which market values could be
identified. Housebuilding was financed largely by the public
06
sector and individual houses were assigned by work units.
With the administrative decentralisation and the establishment
of the land market structure during the reform era, the
ownership of and rights to land were separated. The state
retained the ownership of land, with local governments
responsible for leasing the use rights of the land to the private
sector, which could then be traded in the secondary land
market. The use rights of houses that had already been
assigned were released to individuals at lower than the market
price. However, the use rights of older houses, most of which
were owned by the housing bureaus, were not sold to
individuals, but were made available as rental properties to
the existing occupiers, at a significant discount to market rents,
enabling people who could not afford to buy houses to stay in
their original homes. The ownership of some private houses,
which had been taken into state ownership during the Cultural
Revolution, was returned to the former landowners.
The process of land leasing has been viewed as a means of
generating government revenue, and this has greatly stimulated
the development of the real estate industry. The resultant
increase in land prices has led to a dramatic boom in property
development projects, and has made them increasingly market-
driven. Not surprisingly, given their central location in cities,
traditional areas turned out to have relatively high land values.
According to the Beijing Construction Committee (2002),
between January to September 2001, 36 urban renewal
projects, amounting to an investment of 11.35 billion Yuan
($1.64 billion at October 2007 prices), were launched in eight
inner city districts. About 2,450 thousand m2 of new property
was constructed over an area of 7,956.7 thousand m2. Some
93,000 households were rehoused. In 1994, the Shanghai
municipality launched a large-scale downtown regeneration
programme – the ‘‘365 plan’’- aimed at regenerating 365
hectares of run-down urban areas by 2000. The Shanghai
Construction Report showed that 56 urban renewal projects
were finished in 2006, and that the total construction area
reached 7,280 thousand m2. The number of households affected
by these projects was over 154,000 (Shanghai Construction
Committee, 2007).

As well as the potential increase in land values in inner city
areas, government policies were also fuelled by the increasing
involvement of private developers in traditional area
regeneration projects. Local government believed that this
approach had many advantages. First and foremost, private
sector investment can alleviate the heavy financial burden of
regeneration projects. Moreover, the renewed and revitalised
physical appearance can transform run-down areas into more
certain economic opportunities, thus generating economic
growth. The role of government was therefore to reduce the
barriers to private investment, through land release and
infrastructure provision. A case in point is the authority of
Xicheng District (one of the eighteen administrative sub-
divisions of Beijing Municipality), which put forward an ‘‘old city
area regeneration scheme’’ in 1998. This included a number of
policy priorities, such as reducing land leasing costs and
administrative fees. Similar policies were also put forward in
Shanghai to attract private developers into regeneration
process. The report “Accelerating Regeneration of The
Dilapidated Buildings in Central Urban Scheme” issued in
1996, whose aim is to reduce the complicated project approval
procedure for private developers, is a good example of such
an initiative to de-regulate some of the former obstacles to
the involvement of the private sector. In 2001, the Shanghai
government reiterated the principles behind the regeneration
of old city areas – the government offered support, the market
operated, and the public participated (Real estate newspaper,
The role of government was therefore
to reduce the barriers to private
investment, through land release
and infrastructure provision.
URBAN REVITALISATION IN CHINESE CITIES
2003). This was followed by a ‘New Round Urban Redevelopment
Scheme’ which enriched the incentive package to developers,
by providing exemption from land leasing costs and
administrative fees.
It was also the case that local governments often focused on
profit making opportunities rather than seeking to ensure that
the government’s local development plans and regional
strategic plans for urban development were properly enforced
(Mee Kam, 2003). Planning controls have been streamlined to
satisfy the demands of investors and, as a result, the urban
regeneration of traditional areas in Chinese cities has often
placed greater emphasis on economic benefits, while neglecting
environmental and social issues.
Market-led commercial real estate development aims to
maximise the return on investment, which may very well not be
consistent with social benefits, or with conserving the culture
and historical heritage of the city. In addition, land use changes
and household relocations are two main visible characteristics
of this kind of urban regeneration (Logan, 2005). Household
displacements are an inevitable consequence of land use
change in traditional urban areas. Thus, while the profitability
of real estate development has enabled the redevelopment in
the inner city, it has also led to the development of commodity
housing in the urban periphery (Liu and Wu, 2006).
07
Introduction
To fulfil the significant demand for commercial and residential
space in the down-town areas, which is generally considered to
be the prime location, most property-led regeneration projects
construct high-rise commercial buildings or luxury apartments
to replace the existing low-rise, old-style houses. Consequently,
many traditional areas have seen a great change in land use.
For instance, the regeneration projects around the Baoguo
Temple and Taoyuan in Beijing were no longer based on
residential redevelopment but, instead, accommodated mainly
commercial uses, such as office and retail. Few, if any original
residents were able to move back following redevelopment (Wu,
1999). These same changes were also found in many other cities
such as Shanghai (He and Wu, 2005), Tianjin (Logan et al., 1999),
and Guangzhou (Yeh et al., 1995).
These land use changes have led to inner city gentrification,
as a result of the existing low-income residents moving out and
being replaced by middle- and high-income households, who
can afford the high prices charged for the newly-developed
luxury apartments. The original residents were re-housed, either
through being provided with new housing or through cash
payments. Where they were provided with new housing, this
was normally built on the outskirts of the city, with the location
of the new housing largely determined on cost grounds.
08
These were often constructed as gated communities, with
some cultural and physical facilities being provided, but they
lacked the previous sense of place, as the new residents of
these communities had no previous knowledge of each other.
The other option was to provide households with monetary
compensation to purchase new accommodation without any
specific constraint on location. However, the subsidy was
usually too small for the original residents to purchase houses
in the same areas as where they used to live. To illustrate the
scale of this residential displacement caused by inner city
regeneration, Fang (2000a) estimated that 4.2 million m2 of
housing was demolished in the old city of Beijing between 1990
and 1998. Approximately 32,000 families, comprising about
100,000 people, were displaced, some of them having to wait
up to five years before they were re-housed. From 1995 to 2004,
over 745,000 households were relocated, and more than 33
million m2 of housing were demolished in Shanghai (Shanghai
Statistical Bureau, 2006). In summary, through the regeneration
of traditional areas, the profile of some traditional urban
neighbourhoods has changed significantly.
Approximately 32,000 families,
comprising about 100,000 people,
were displaced, some of them having
to wait up to five years before they
were re-housed.
 URBAN REVITALISATION IN CHINESE CITIES

Local governments have gradually become aware of the While issues relating to the financing of development are
negative impacts on the image of the city as a result of the recognized as a key issue, this study has not explicitly
regeneration of traditional areas, and have developed and addressed them due to limitation of information and data.
implemented policies to deal with this. For example, in 2002,
the Beijing Municipal Government issued Protection Layout for The study is organised as follows:
25 Pieces of Protected Historical and Cultural Blocks, which set
The social impact of urban regeneration and the concept of
boundaries and new conservation rules of the protected blocks.
neighbourhood in western countries and in China will be briefly
As a consequence, the rate of regeneration of the traditional
reviewed in chapter 2. Chapter 3 introduces and describes the
areas slowed down to some extent. However, property-led
six studied neighbourhoods in Beijing and Shanghai, and the
regeneration has continued apace in many traditional areas
methodology of the study. Chapter 4 will look at changes in the
outside the protected blocks.
social and spatial structures of the neighbourhoods in Beijing and
Shanghai. Changes in life-styles, looking in particular at issues
Although urban regeneration in China was not officially named
relating to access to amenities and safety and security issues
as property-led regeneration, its characteristics reveal that there
are dealt with in chapter 5. Chapter 6 then looks at the interaction
was a shift from a government-financed process to a property-led
between neighbours and their sense of attachment to their
process. By focusing on physical regeneration and generating
neighbourhood. Finally, the findings of this study and lessons
economic profits, social objectives have been ignored in the
for urban regeneration in China are summarised in Chapter 7.
traditional area regeneration in China in recent years.

Recently, however, as the Chinese central government switches

its major policy emphasis from economic development to a
more holistic approach to achieve balanced and sustainable
development, it is a good time to study the social impacts of
property-led regeneration. Therefore, this study aims to explore
the social impacts of the property-led urban regeneration in
traditional areas at a neighbourhood level. Key questions to
ask are: what has property-led urban regeneration brought to
the social-spatial structure of urban residents? How have
neighbourhood relationships changed in the process of
regeneration in traditional urban areas? From the point of
view of residents, what should be improved in the approaches
taken to urban regeneration, in order to preserve healthy
neighbourhoods?

09
02 Social impacts of urban regeneration
Social impacts of urban regeneration and the concept
of neighbourhood in the West and in China
This chapter addresses the background of the study. It first
reviews the literature on the social impact of urban regeneration,
and the concept of ‘neighbourhood’ in the west. This will help
us to understand why it is important to study the social impact
of urban regeneration, particularly at the neighbourhood level.
Then we look at similar studies in China, exploring in particular
some of the limitations of that work.
2.1 Studies of social impacts of urban regeneration in
the west
Large scale urban renewal originated in the United Kingdom,
the United States of America, and other western countries in
the 1930s, as a means of enhancing living conditions in
deprived urban areas and meeting the needs of an increasing
population. It was initially characterised by slum clearances
and residential displacements and, although this process played
an important role in renewing the urban physical environment,
it has been criticised for generating negative social impacts.
For one thing, it focused solely upon physical regeneration
and neglected the social environment where people lived.
Young and Willmott (1957) found that many of the relocated
residents ended up living in a better physical environment
but had lost elements of their previous social environment.
10
This approach to urban renewal weakens the vitality of urban life,
creates inhuman urban spaces, and ruins healthy communities.
To the extent that planners did consider the social environment
in their decision-making, they wrongly assumed that the shape
of the physical environment determined the social environment,
but the reality that emerged is that social neighbourhoods within
which people lived are much more complex and overlapping
than the planning idea of clean, physically distinct neighbourhood
areas. As a result, it has been accepted that the long-run social
costs caused by the urban destruction and the relocation
movement are too high a price to pay.
In the 1960s, there was an important improvement in the
processes of urban renewal, in that far greater emphasis was
placed on public participation. It was expected that introducing
public participation into the planning system would have many
advantages. One of these was that by enabling the public to
participate in decision-making processes, redevelopment
programmes could pay more attention to local people’s needs
and avoid focusing purely on the reconstruction of the physical
environment. Many new programmes during that time adopted
this new approach, such as ‘community architecture’ in the
United Kingdom and ‘community development’ in the United
States. The targets of these projects were to redevelop the
original houses and environment within a particular locale
(usually community-based), instead of rebuilding them.
 URBAN REVITALISATION IN CHINESE CITIES

More attention was paid to social development in depressed

communities and within these community redevelopment
programmes, community organisations and the meaningful
participation of residents were developed and played an active
role in the redevelopment and administration processes.

However, in the 1980s, property-led urban regeneration became

the dominant strategy in British urban policy, following the
experience of many US cities. In this model, the emphasis
was placed on the construction and provision of higher-quality
residential developments and prestigious commercial projects,
at the expense of local residents, who were often re-housed,
leading to a very fragmented urban structure.

Property-led regeneration projects have been criticized for

merely contributing to physical and economic regeneration,
while neglecting the welfare of local residents. Specific concerns
are that the benefits accrue predominantly to ‘outsiders’ -
developers, financiers and commuters, rather than to local
residents, and that the new economic activity scarcely
contributes to the local employment market. Secondly, disparities
of living conditions between groups and neighbourhoods within
cities have been accelerated. It was claimed that these urban
regeneration programmes destroyed the diversity and vibrancy
of neighbourhoods, adversely affected the well-being of the poor,
and evicted low-income residents, resulting in urban gentrification
and social exclusion. Many researchers argued that spatial
segregation in urban regeneration processes has worsened social
inequality and polarisation.

11
Social impacts of urban regeneration
Since the 1990s, there have been ongoing efforts in western
countries to use planning policies to alleviate these negative
social impacts. There has been a recognition that the physical
planning and the provision of amenities within a neighbourhood
alone cannot lead to a good neighbourhood. The view now
is that neighbourhood planning and redevelopment should
primarily be about helping people create and improve
communities (Kennedy, 1996; Peterman, 2000). As a result,
a greater policy emphasis was placed on area-based and
local initiatives, public-private partnerships, and community
involvement. For instance, a comprehensive approach that
highlighted community needs was adopted by the Social
Exclusion Unit (SEU) of the UK government, to improve public
services and build inclusive partnerships. Similarly, the
US government initiated a plan for reconstructing poor
neighbourhoods in the early 1990s (Wallace, 2001). ‘The
Neighbourhood Renewal Strategy in general and New Deal
for Communities in particular, represented a reaction against
“bricks and mortar” regeneration to focus on people, attempting
to improve life opportunities through self-improvement and
community development of the existing population in deprived
neighbourhoods (Cameron, 2006) In addition, neighbourhood
rehabilitations and the creation of socially mixed communities
have been encouraged by urban redevelopment policies.
To sum up, social objectives were not initially considered as an
objective of urban renewal and property-led regeneration in the
West. However, social problems, especially local neighbourhood
issues, arose in these processes and more and more attention
has been paid to them. Although not all the problems have been
solved, much progress has been made. The basis of urban
regeneration has switched from physical renewal to
comprehensive social and economic regeneration.
2.2 The concept of neighbourhood in the west
In order to explain why it is worth studying the social impact of
urban regeneration at the neighbourhood level, we need to think
about the concept of neighbourhood and its relationship with
urban planning. The concept of neighbourhood is intrinsically
related to its specific urban structure. According to Keller (1968),
neighbourhood is a ‘place with physical and symbolic boundaries’;
Schoenberg (1979) defines the neighbourhood’s characteristics
as: ‘common named boundaries, more than one institution
disentitled with the area and more than one tie of shared public
space or social network’; according to Hallman (1984),
neighbourhood is a ‘limited territory within a larger urban area,
where people inhabit dwellings and interact socially’. Although
these concepts are mainly drawn from ecological or sociological
disciplines, they all have geographical or spatial characteristics.
Implicit in many definitions is the notion that the type and even
the existence of neighbourhoods can and often does vary
across urban space (Galster, 2001). Therefore, urban dynamics
and urban governance could be one of the fundamental drivers
of neighbourhood changes.
12
Moreover, neighbourhoods are a suitable level at which to view
social impacts and changes in people’s daily lives as a result of
planning. The literature clearly shows us that the neighbourhood
is an ideal unit at which to study and assess quality of life,
social ties, identity, well-being and territoriality (NEHOM, 2004).
In addition, neighbourhood changes could fuel other urban
issues. These neighbourhood changes are unpredictable and
have resulted in ever-widening differences in prosperity between
places within single regions and countries (Kearns and Parkinson,
2001). As a result, neighbourhood has become a key focus of
urban planning studies over recent years.
However, in order to improve the quality of neighbourhoods,
we need to understand more clearly the characteristics of
neighbourhoods. A ‘good neighbourhood’ has been described
as ‘a home area that can serve several functions, most notably
those of relaxation and re-creation of self; making connections
with others; fostering attachment and belonging; and
demonstrating or reflecting one’s own values’ (Brower, 1996).
In another definition,, a sustainable neighbourhood has been
described as one where ‘people are provided adequate and
appropriate shelter from their neighbourhood; enjoy a sense
of belonging; be assured of mutual social support from their
neighbourhoods; enjoy freedom from fear and security of
person; and participate actively in civic affairs’ (BCRTEE, 1993).
Both of these concepts stress the psycho-social benefits of
neighbourhoods.
Good neighbourhoods can also be thought of in terms of
social capital. Coleman (1988) suggests that social capital
is ‘the shared knowledge, understandings, and patterns of
interactions that a group of people bring to any productive
activity’. According to Putman (1995), social capital refers to
‘the collective value of all “social networks” and the inclinations
that arise from these networks to do things for each other’.
It has also been described as ‘the relationship, networks and
norms that facilitate collective actions’ (OECD, 2001). From
these points of view, social capital is embedded within social
relationships; in other words, an individual cannot increase his
or her social capital without being involved in a social network.
Therefore, it is likely that good neighbourhoods tend to have
high social capital.

Social capital is seen as a fundamental determinant of person’s
well-being. It is extensively used by social scientists to explain
social phenomena, from children’s welfare, educational
performance, economic prosperity, democracy to ‘health
and happiness’ (e.g. Putnam, 2000; Lupton, 2003). Thus
strengthening or maintaining social capital is now recognised as
a critical objective in urban regeneration, especially in housing
renewal. The creation of mixed or balanced communities has
now been recognised as an important strategy in strengthening
social capital in urban neighbourhoods (Veldboer et al., 2002).
In conclusion, due to the nature and scope of neighbourhoods,
social impacts, especially the development of social capital as a
result of urban structural changes, can be effectively illustrated
at the neighbourhood scale.
2.3 The social impacts of urban regeneration in China
As a result of the regeneration of traditional areas, many
courtyard houses, Hutongs (narrow streets or alleys) and
Linongs (a type of lane-and-community based urban dwelling
form) have been replaced by luxury apartments, high-quality
commercial facilities and office buildings. Low-income residents
have been displaced by the middle-income and high-income
households who can afford the high price of houses in the newly
regenerated areas.
There have been mixed views on this process. On the one hand,
it cannot be denied that this approach has effectively solved the
problem of how to finance urban redevelopment, which has
been a problem for local government for some time, and it has
definitely encouraged economic growth (e.g. Wu, 2001; He and
Wu, 2007; Hsing, 2005). In addition, it played an important role
in reshaping the city. For instance, the renewed appearance of
the inner city areas in Beijing, such as the development of a
world-class central business district (CBD), has reinforced the
image of Beijing as an emerging global city (Wei and Yu, 2006).
Furthermore, infrastructure has been upgraded in some of the
more deprived old city areas, and the physical conditions of
the housing of some of the original residents has been improved
(e.g. Zhou, 2002; Shao, 2001). Shanghai is somewhat different
to Beijing in both regeneration and protection. Most Linong
buildings in the central area had not been maintained by
the government since they were built, so they were in a poor
physical condition and, as they were difficult to preserve,
demolition seemed to be the only realistic option for them.
The local government considered a small number of well-
maintained houses suitable for preservation, and in 2004,
over 600 buildings in 235 locations were listed by the
Shanghai Cultural Heritage Bureau for preservation. The old
houses in Huaihai Road were protected, and nowadays this
area is very famous for its bars and typical historical styles
of Shanghai buildings.
URBAN REVITALISATION IN CHINESE CITIES
On the other hand, great changes in both physical and social
aspects have led to many adverse outcomes. There are many
consequences: certainly one of the most important ones is the
fact that the identification of the historic cultural city has been
weakened along with the clearance of courtyard houses and
Hutongs (Zhou, 2002). Although some historical heritage
buildings have survived, a large number of modern buildings,
similar to those in countries around the world, have replaced
the traditional style of buildings which stood at the heart of the
capital city for five dynasties. Moreover, the traditional cultural
image carried by the local neighbourhood has been demolished
by the housing displacement process (Shao, 2001; Zhang and
Fang, 2004). Therefore, the key characteristic of the historic
image of Beijing has been disappearing with the regeneration
of the traditional areas.
The study of the displacement of residential areas is a relatively
new phenomenon in China. On-site relocation projects are not
favoured by developers since the need to accommodate the
existing population could reduce their profit margins, given the
high population density in these areas (Wu, 2004a). Fang (2000b)
described the intensive resistance from relocated residents
as a dilemma of urban redevelopment. Zhang (2002) also
used displacement as a critical indicator to measure negative
outcomes of redevelopment. Property-led regeneration has
accelerated social problems such as social inequity. For
instance, middle- and high-income families move into the
regenerated area, while low-income households are forced
to move out, which led to the segregation of different income
groups (Geng, 1999; Shan, 2001). Besides, as for the residents
who have been relocated to outer areas, they are deprived of
their convenient access to facilities, and experience the decline
of community interactions and social networks (Wu, 2004b).
Conservation of the social network has been proposed as of
outmost importance to in the regeneration process, because rich
social networks are generated through long-term interactions
and communications among local residents, being crucial to the
living of local residents and the stability of communities (Yang
and Wu, 1999; He et al., 2001; Zhang and Fang, 2004). However,
the understanding of what has been changed at the
neighbourhood with these residential replacements and
fundamental changes in the urban fabric is far from clear.
13
Social impacts of urban regeneration
2.4 The concept of neighbourhood in China
The definition of neighbourhood in China is similar to that in
the West. ‘Neighbourhood’ in the ‘Chinese Encyclopaedia’
(Chinese Encyclopaedia Press, 2006) is defined as: ‘relatively
independent small groups shaped by tight interactive
relationship, significant identification and emotional connection
developed by people lived nearby.’
Consequently, neighbourhoods have the following basic
characteristics. Firstly, there is a territorial differentiation - the
formation of neighbourhoods, as a kind of primary social group,
depends on the location. Second is the social character of the
neighbourhoods - the social character is very much influenced
by the degree of proximity and familiarity between families.
Communications and assistance are the simplest functions that
take place between neighbours, which do not require any formal
public assistance. What might be thought of as the mental
context is the third characteristic of neighbourhoods – work by
He (2003) and Yang and Li (2004) shows that neighbourhoods
can be identified according to the cohesion and similarity in
their shared goals and ideals. This is a self-reinforcing process,
in which the identity of neighbourhoods maintains and
strengthens the social cohesion.
14
Studies of neighbourhood relationships in China have generally
adopted a sociological approach and have not drawn on
approaches from urban planning research. Ruan et al., (1997;
2003) studied the ‘resident discussion network on important
topics’ in Tianjing and concluded that shared roots and
occupational relations have a fairly high importance in the
categorisation of social networks. Through a survey of 1,000
households in Shanghai, Wu and Hu (2002) found that elderly
people tend to be more satisfied with neighbourhood
relationships, and that the educational level has an inverse
ratio with the appreciation of the neighbourhood relationships.
In addition to this, a neighbourhood investigation in Nanjing
showed that males are more likely to be satisfied with the status
quo of neighbourhoods, and that the higher the residential
building is, the worse its neighbourhood relationship will be.
A large proportion of people in this survey (78.9%) believed that
neighbourhood relationships are important for them (Li, 2005).
It was only very recently that Chinese scholars began to pay
attention to the neighbourhood scale in urban planning (e.g.
He and Wu, 2007; Liu and Wu, 2006; Wu and He, 2005), but
what happened at the neighbourhood level in the process of
urban regeneration is still unclear.
 URBAN REVITALISATION IN CHINESE CITIES

To sum up, while there is a rich literature on the social impact

of urban regeneration in the West, the study of neighbourhood
and community changes has only just begun in China. A key
question that is being asked is what the effect of property-led
urban regeneration is on urban neighbourhoods in traditional
areas in China. One critical requirement to improve the
regeneration of traditional areas is to have better information
about neighbourhoods and the process of change in
neighbourhoods.

Therefore, it is very important to assess the qualitative and

quantitative changes of these neighbourhoods before and after
property-led regeneration. Studies at neighbourhood scale
would be able to make a contribution to our understanding of
physical and socio-economic urban change at the micro-level
and how to develop policy responses to existing problems.

15
03 The study areas and methodology

In this chapter, the case study areas and the research method
are briefly introduced.
3.1 An introduction of the study areas
Beijing is an ancient city, with a 3050-year history since its
foundation, and it is 852 years since it was first chosen as the
capital of China. Not surprisingly, as a result of its long history,
it contains many traditional areas, with the ancient city
remaining comparatively intact through the evolution from the
‘Dadu’ in Yuan Dynasty, the city of Beijing in the Ming and
Qing Dynasty, and from the Republic of China to the People’s
Republic of China nowadays. It had developed as one of the
industrial centres of China. It used to be the economic centre
of China before the 1980s, although Shanghai is now the
predominant economic centre, and Beijing is now positioning
itself as the political and cultural centre in China, although it still
maintains a significant economic influence, especially in North
China, having developed numerous large-scale state-owned
industrial enterprises. Many of the workers in these state-owned
enterprises lived in state-owned courtyards in old city areas.
Each work unit had its own designated accommodation area so
that people in the same work unit could live close to each other.
However, this pattern began to change with the growth of new
industries and the decline or relocation of many of the state-
owned enterprises in the manufacturing sector. As a result,
many industrial workers living in the old city areas were laid off.
Generally, the local housing bureau allowed them to live in their
former houses, only charging them relatively low rents.
Property-led regeneration in the traditional areas of Beijing
and Shanghai has been a significant phenomenon. In the 1990s,
a huge emphasis was placed on economic development in
China and the scale of the resultant construction in Beijing
was unprecedented. According to Wang (2003), 50 million
households were affected by redevelopment projects between
1991 and 2002. Since 1995, an area of over 3 million m2 is
redeveloped every year in Shanghai (Shanghai statistical
bureau, 2007). Included within this are many of the traditional
areas of Shanghai.
In order to explore neighbourhood changes before and after the
regeneration of traditional areas, three types of neighbourhoods
in each city were selected (Figures 1 and 2 illustrate their
locations for both Beijing and Shanghai):
Type One is a traditional neighbourhood which has
not been redeveloped
Type Two is a peripheral community which was
developed in order to house residents who had been
displaced by urban redevelopment in the city centre
Type Three is a city-centre residential community
which has been developed within a regeneration project
to replace the existing poor-quality traditional housing

Shanghai was voted in 2005 as the city with the most overall
real restate investment potential in China, but there is still a
fairly large traditional area in the Shanghai. Linongs and their
architecture is typical of Shanghai: small lanes crammed together
in a way that deeply reflects Shanghai’s 19th-century colonial
past. Industrial workers were housed there by their work units, but
a lack of maintenance resulted in housing conditions deteriorating.
Having a long and rich history as an international trading port,
Shanghai is now aiming to re-emerge as a global city, but the
dilapidated urban areas are not seen to fit in with this image.
Thus demolishing these buildings, improving infrastructure and
increasing green spaces have become the major tasks for the
municipal government (He and Wu, 2007)

16
 URBAN REVITALISATION IN CHINESE CITIES

The three Beijing case study areas:

Figure 1: Location of the Three Study Areas in Beijing

The South Luoguxiang Community is a Type One

neighbourhood in Beijing, which is located in the Dongcheng
District, within the second ring road. This area is characterised
by low-storey traditional courtyard buildings and high population
densities. Due to the aged infrastructure and dilapidated
housing conditions, most of the wealthy young people who
grew up there purchased houses elsewhere, and only the more
elderly people, laid-off workers, and low-income households
stayed in this community. As a typical residential area
maintaining the architectural style of the late Qing Dynasty,
it was included in the historical and cultural protection blocks.
Thus the South Luoguxiang Community has not experienced
property-led regeneration. Prior to the 2008 Olympic Games,
the local government carried out a publicly-funded programme
of repair and reconstruction.

The North Shaoyaoju Community is a Type Two

neighbourhood in Beijing, which lies in Chaoyang District
and on the edge of the fourth ring road (north east part). It was
developed in order to re-house residents from the Dongcheng
District urban regeneration area.

Ju’er Hutong is a Type Three neighbourhood in Beijing.

It is an example of the regeneration of a traditional neighbourhood,
where the aim has been to preserve the best of the old buildings,
trees and spaces, to replace dilapidated housing and to evolve
new forms of housing which could relate to the old, yet allow
the provision of modern facilities and amenities. Over 40% of
the original population were able to remain in their redeveloped
houses there.

17
The study areas and methodology

The three Shanghai case study areas:

Figure 2: Locations of the three study areas in Shanghai

The Kangjia Nong neighbourhood is a Type One

neighbourhood, which is located in old city of Shanhgai. It is an
old community, and is a typical old neighbourhood with old style
lanes named Linong. As famous as Beijing’s Hutongs, the Linongs
are inseparable from Shanghai’s history and culture. Having
recorded the city’s past, they are now witnessing its present.

The Shibo Jiayuan community is a Type Two neighbourhood.

It is a huge new neighbourhood which has been constructed for
the residents being moved from the inner city areas of Shanghai
that were demolished in order to develop the 2010 World Expo in
Shanghai. The government moved about 28,000 people from
10,420 households, most of them from Zhoujia Du, in the South
Bound, and the neighbourhoods of the Shanghai Iron Company.
Ironically, some of these residents were originally farmers of
Sanlin town, which is the area corresponding to the new
development of Shibo Jiayuan.

The Yangguang Cuizhuyuan is a Type Three neighbourhood,

also located in central Shanghai. This neighbourhood is divided
into two parts: one part is now occupied by two high-rise
buildings which house the original residents of the site (about 30%
of the total apartments offered in the site). These residents tend to
be low-income and their homes were not placed on the open
market. The other part of the development consists of high-rise
residential buildings built to a lower density (and usually with good
views of the surrounding landscapes and good orientation for
exposure to sunlight). Apartments in these buildings were sold on
the open market.

18

3.2 Methodology and data collection
In this study, the approach taken was to assess neighbourhood
changes according to four criteria: ease of access to the main
urban amenities and facilities; the interaction that takes place
between people in the neighbourhood; the attachment that
people have to their neighbourhood; and the sense of safety
that people have in their neighbourhood. The first two criteria
are regarded as being the main constituent elements of social
capital and social cohesion. In addition, the willingness of local
residents to participate in the urban regeneration process was
also explored in this research.
One of the challenges of this study lies in the availability of data
at the neighbourhood level. Although many advanced tools and
techniques for modelling, mapping and analyzing small-area
data have been developed over recent years, it is often the case
that the data required is not available at the neighbourhood
scale. Much information relating to the understanding of
neighbourhood circumstances and characteristics, including
residents’ perceptions and social networks, does not exist in
current databases. In addition, some basic information at the
neighbourhood scale isn’t published in China or has not even
been surveyed.
Therefore, due to the lack of data at the neighbourhood scale,
a questionnaire approach was adopted, with questionnaires
being distributed in the six neighbourhoods in Beijing and
Shanghai, in order to trace general perceptions towards the
neighbourhoods first. In the questionnaire, neighbourhood
changes were measured by both the feelings and actions of
individuals. Attitudinal questions (e.g. do you feel attached to
this neighbourhood?) and behavioural questions (e.g. do you
regularly stop and talk with neighbours?) were used to explore
key concepts. Given the advantages of flexibility, control in the
interview situations, and the ability to collect supplementary
information, the questionnaire was followed up with interviews
to explore the neighbourhood changes in more depth.
The questionnaire surveys were conducted in the six
neighbourhoods in two phases for the two cities, one in April
2007; and another in April 2008. Some 250 questionnaires
were distributed in the six neighbourhoods, with the number
distributed relating to the size of the local population.
URBAN REVITALISATION IN CHINESE CITIES
Beijing
South Luoguxiang (Type One): 35 distributed; 33 responses
North Shaoyaoju (Type Two): 35 distributed; 32 responses
Ju’er (Type Three): 33 distributed; 29 responses
Shanghai
Kangjia Nong (Type One): 45 distributed 41 responses
Shibo Jiayuan (Type Two): 60 distributed; 59 responses
Yangguang Cuizhuyuan (Type Three): 42 distributed;
40 responses
The questionnaires were randomly distributed to households
based on the address list. To seek to avoid any bias according
to the respondents’ profile, the questionnaire surveys were
carried out at the weekends, when those in full-time
employment would be more likely to be at home. To ensure the
quality of the responses, the interviews were performed by
postgraduate and undergraduate students in urban planning,
with training provided in advance.
The interviews were carried out in April and May 2008.
In-depth interviews were also carried out with the members
of the Neighbourhood Committee and relevant community
organisations, with eleven interviews in the three neighbourhoods
in Beijing and ten in Shanghai with different stakeholders.
Based on the understanding of what constitutes a Chinese
neighbourhood and the different groups contributing to the
neighbourhood sense of community, five groups were considered
as stakeholders, and therefore where interviewees are selected
from (The responsibilities of each group are showed in Table 1).
19
The study areas and methodology
Figure 3: Neighbourhood Chorus
Neighbourhood Committee
The Neighbourhood Committee is seen as one of the grass-
roots structures of local authorities, being a self-managed group
at the neighbourhood level. Usually the Neighbourhood
Committee is composed of five to nine people, including one
director, one vice-director and several committee members,
who are elected by local residents. Their salaries are paid by
the government, and they work under the supervision of the
local District Office (government branch).
Property Management Company
A property management company has the responsibility for
managing multiple aspects of the ownership of real estate,
similar to the management activities of any other private sector
organisation. They charge households according to their
floorspace. Nearly all the residential communities built after
1990 have property management companies.
Property-owners’ Committee
The property-owners’ committee consists of representatives
elected from among the property-owners. They represent the
interests of all property-owners and pass property-owner’s
requests to the property management company. It is a non-
governmental organisation, which supervises the property
management company’s operation and management. The
power of the property-owners’ committee is linked to its
20
Figure 4: Neighbourhood Chinese Chess Society
ownership of real estate. It has decision-making rights in
property related affairs, and the membership is elected at the
property-owners’ conference. The property-owners’ conference
is normally held once every six months or annually, and requires
a minimum attendance rate of 50% of all property owners in a
community. It provides an opportunity for all property owners to
vote on important issues, such as the appointment of the
property management company. Interim conferences can also
be held for emergency purposes, or if more than 20% of the
property owners request one.
Neighbourhood Chorus
The idea of city-wide choral contests was first launched in
1994. Neighbourhood choruses are very popular in China,
and annual city-wide choral contests are held in most cities.
Local residents, especially senior people believe that joining
the neighbourhood chorus could enrich their daily life and
enable them to express their feelings. Local residents join
the chorus and practice together once or twice a week.
Membership of neighbourhood choruses is free of charge,
except for the fee required for hiring professionals to teach
them. The local government also supports and encourages
these kinds of societies, in order to enhance the city’s artistic
image. There are some other widespread neighbourhood based
societies such as dancing clubs and Chinese chess societies.
 URBAN REVITALISATION IN CHINESE CITIES

Neighbourhood Communist Party Branch

The neighbourhood party branch is the basic unit of the
Chinese Communist Party. It consists of party members in the
Neighbourhood Committee, and some retired members. Party
members are regarded as being people who can be trusted and
most likely to help others and to deal with any neighbourhood
difficulties. For example, when residential life was being
disrupted by trade or commerce, the local residents would
probably ask the party members in their neighbourhood to
report the situation to the relevant administrative office,
instead of having to try to raise the complaint themselves.

As previously stated, the methodology of this research included

in-depth interviews with these neighbourhood organisations.
Most key members of each group were willing to be interviewed,
such as the director and vice-director of the Neighbourhood
Committee, the manager of the property management company,
and the organiser of the Neighbourhood Chorus. Some
interviewees belonged to more than one group. As there is
no property management company and property-owners’
committee in the traditional areas, those two group delegates
are therefore absent in South Luoguxiang and Kangjia Nong, the
traditional neighbourhoods in Beijing and Shanghai respectively.

This study has examined the impact of urban regeneration in

different settings in Beijing and Shanghai, looking in particular at
the social and physical outcomes of different approaches. What
has not been examined in this study has been a comparison of
varying approaches to the funding of these processes.

Figure 5: Room of the Neighbourhood calligraphy and

brushwork society

21
The study areas and methodology

Table 1. Roles and responsibilities of interview groups

Neighbourhood Committee Informing the constitution, laws, rules and national policies; defending residents’ legal rights;


educating residents in carrying out their legal duties; and initiating various social activities
Transacting public affairs and common welfare undertakings within the community


Mediating conflicts between residents


Assisting in the maintenance of public security


Assisting governments or other relevant departments in serving the residents’ benefits,


including common sanitation, birth control, and social relief, and teenage education
Reflecting residents’ opinions, requests and suggestions to governments or other


relevant departments;
Initiating activities in public services and running relevant non-profit organisations.


Property Management Company The repair, maintenance, and management of buildings and equipment


 The repair, maintenance, and management of public facilities
The operation, maintenance and management of public spaces and service facilities

The maintenance of public green spaces, environmental sanitation and security

Other proceedings consigned by property owners or occupiers.


Property-owners’ Committee Holding the property-owners’ conference



Engaging the property management company; concluding, amending and ending


the property management contract with the property management company
Raising the public maintenance fund based on relevant laws, rules and regulations, and


supervising the use and management of the fund
Consideration of the annual plan of property management company and supervising the


budget and final accounts of property management service charges
Collecting owners and occupiers’ opinions and suggestions; supervising the service and


management activities of the property management company
Carrying out the decisions of the property-owners’ conference

Performing of the property management contract.


Neighbourhood Chorus A kind of neighbourhood interest society.




Neighbourhood Communist Disseminating and implementing the guidelines and strategies of the party, and decisions


Party Branch of the central committee and other upper level party divisions
 Organising party members to learn communist theories, policies of the party, and
acquainting members with new knowledge
 Educating, supervising and managing members to secure their responsibilities
and rights
Linking the party work with the community; gathering comments and suggestions from


the community; helping the community to secure their rights and responsibility
Developing new members of the party; educating and cultivating the candidates

Guiding party members and the mass in challenging all forms of illegal activities.


Source: www.hutong.com

22
URBAN REVITALISATION IN CHINESE CITIES

23
04 Physical characteristics and socio-economic profile

4.1 The physical environment Figure 6: Local amenities in Kangjia Nong, Shanghai
What has been the impact of different patterns of the urban
fabric on social and spatial structures? Clearly, one of the
major differences is that the physical environment in those
neighbourhoods that have been re-developed, either in the
city–centre or on the peripheries, saw great improvements
compared to the traditional neighbourhoods. Meanwhile, the
services and amenities that are now being provided in and
around the newly-redeveloped areas are responding to the
needs of middle and higher socio-economic groups rather
than the original less well-off residents.

A key finding was that central neighbourhoods, whether

redeveloped or not, tend to have more local amenities (such
as supermarkets, laundries, post offices, and restaurants) near
their communities. Due to their central location, and their long
history as residential areas, residents in the central areas are
well served with facilities nearby. However, most of the amenities
surrounding the more traditional city-centre neighbourhoods
were small-scale and relatively low-priced businesses, such
as family-based restaurants, clothes stores, food markets and
barbers (Figure 6). In contrast, the amenities surrounding the
re-developed neighbourhoods were more modern and
standardised, such as chain convenience stores, bathhouses, Figure 7: Local amenities in Yangguang
and cafes (Figure 7). North Shaoyaoju, in the north-eastern Cuizhuyan, Shanghai
periphery of Beijing, was first established in 1991, and there
were hardly any amenities in the area at that time. Thus it is easy
to imagine that the people who were re-housed to these areas
faced considerable inconvenience during first few years after
moving there. The same problems faced the residents who have
re-located to Shibo Jiayuan in Shanghai, which was completed
only relatively recently, in 2006. When we look at amenities within
these neighbourhoods, the newly-developed city-centre
neighbourhoods have a wider range of amenities, such as
gymnasiums, pet clinics and laundries, than those elsewhere,
reflecting the higher socio-economic status of the residents.

24
 URBAN REVITALISATION IN CHINESE CITIES

Therefore, the development of the new neighbourhoods,

whether in the city-centre or on the peripheries, has enabled
a much wider range of amenities to be provided than is the
case in the traditional neighbourhoods, where activities have
emerged in a more random and spontaneous fashion. In addition,
the newly-developed city centre neighbourhoods also benefit
from considerable open space, both within their communities
and nearby (Figures 9 and 10), in stark contrast to the situation
in the traditional neighbourhoods (Figure 8).

Figure 8: Narrow outdoor spaces in Kangjia Nong, Shanghai (left) and South Luoguxiang, Beijing (right)

25
Physical characteristics and socio-economic profile
In terms of housing conditions, there are dramatic differences
between the three types of communities in each city. The
housing in the traditional neighbourhoods of South Luoguxiang
and Kangjia Nong were showing their age and were in need of
repair. More than half of the houses were built before 1910, and
it was not unusual for between six and ten families to share one
large courtyard which would have accommodated just one rich
family in the past. They would normally have to share kitchen
and bathroom facilities – indeed, some courtyards do not even
have any bathrooms, so they had to use public toilets on the
street. The situation in Kangjia Nong in Shanghai is particularly
bad - the average floorspace per person is less than 5.6 m2,
which is much less than the average floorspace in Shanghai in
2006 of 15.5 m2. It is not unknown for one family to have to
share a kitchen with 7 to 15 neighbouring families. There are
no often no sanitary facilities in their houses. This is a serious
inconvenience to the residents, and can actually be very
dangerous to older people, who form a relatively large part
of the population of Kangjia Nong. Water heaters, which are
commonplace in most houses in Beijing and Shanghai, were still
a luxury for most households. Some residents have carried out
small-scale renovations or repairs to improve their housing
Figure 9: Open spaces in Shibo Jiayuan, Shanghai (left) and North Shaoyaoju, Beijing (right)
26
conditions, and have enlarged their housing space by occupying
public spaces. However, these renovations and repairs were
always poorly done and inconsistent with the original building
style. Figure 11 shows the general housing condition in the
courtyards in South Luoguxiang, while Figure 12 illustrates the
Linongs in Kangjia Nong.
Furthermore, the infrastructure in these neighbourhoods is also
out of date. More than half of the residents were still using small
coal furnaces to warm themselves in the winter. Alongside this,
new technology such as cable television, telecommunication
and broadband are gradually entering into households, but, due
to the poor infrastructure there are more and more ‘electrical
wires in air’ interlaced vertically and horizontally, and this has
become a hidden problem. In Beijing, only a small proportion of
wealthy households owned entire courtyards with well-equipped
modern living facilities (Figure 9). With an overall average floor
space of approximately 10 m2 per person (including both single
family and multi family occupation of these courtyards), what
this means for the low income groups in these courtyard areas
is that their average floor space per person is much lower, at
about 6 m2 of floor space.
 URBAN REVITALISATION IN CHINESE CITIES

Figure 10: Open spaces in Yangguang Cuizhuyuan, Shanghai (left) and Ju’er Hutong, Beijing (right)

Figure 11: Housing conditions in South Luoguxiang, Beijing

27
Physical characteristics and socio-economic profile

Figure 12: Housing conditions in Kangjia Nong, Shanghai

Figure 13: Housing conditions in North Shaoyaoju, Beijing

28
 URBAN REVITALISATION IN CHINESE CITIES

Figure 14: Housing conditions in Shibo Jiayuan, Shanghai

Figure 15: Housing conditions in Ju’er Hutong, Beijing

29
Physical characteristics and socio-economic profile
Figure 16: Housing conditions in Yangguang Cuizhuyuan, Shanghai
As far as the neighbourhoods in the periphery are concerned,
the average floor space per person is about 23 m2 in North
Shaoyaoju in Beijing and 75 m2 in Shibo Jiayuan in Shanghai.
As well as being much larger, the quality and the facilities are
also superior to the traditional neighbourhoods (Figure 14).
The most common housing type is a two-bedroom apartment.
Each apartment has its own kitchen and toilet. Infrastructure
and public amenities are generally of a high quality in this area.
Electricity, water, drainage, telecommunication, cable TV, coal
gas are available at each apartment unit. Generally speaking,
they provide all that is needed for modern life.
Housing in Yangguang Cuizhuyuan, the newly re-developed
city centre neighbourhood in Shanghai is predominantly based
around high-rise modern apartments, which provide all the
requirements of modern life. In contrast, housing in Ju’er
Hutong, the equivalent neighbourhood in Beijing, is not only
able to provide all the necessary infrastructure, but also
manages to maintain some of the advantages of the traditional
courtyard structure. The housing types vary between two- and
three-storey types, as increasing housing density was one of the
aims, but terraces and galleries allow much more outdoor space
than the traditional courtyard. Interlocked and varied layout
plans for the apartments allow for a mix of accommodation,
and has enabled the inclusion of a range of courtyard sizes
respect preserved trees and buildings (Wu, 1999). The design
of the two- and three-storey buildings allow lofts under the
pitched roofs to be converted into rooms and basements to
be converted to multiple uses, including bicycle stores, offices.
30
4.2 The profile of the residents
When we look at age structure, education level, occupation, and
the family annual income, we can see clear differences between
the various neighbourhoods.
Regarding the age structure of the areas, interesting patterns
emerge. In the newly-developed area in Beijing, the development
has accommodated a significant proportion of the existing
residents, as well as providing apartments to new residents,
who tend to be younger and wealthier than the existing
residents who have stayed. As a consequence, the age-mix
is quite large.
However, the overall pattern is that newly developed in-situ
neighbourhoods has a younger age-profile than the other
neighbourhoods with, not surprisingly, the traditional
neighbourhoods having the largest proportion of elderly people
than the average. As can be seen from chart 1, the proportion
of elder people (above 60 years old) in the South Luoguxiang
in Beijing and Kangjia Nong in Shanghai were higher than the
average level of Beijing and Shanghai (Beijing Statistical Bureau,
2007 Shanghai Statistical Bureau, 2007). The age-profile of the
peripheral neighbourhoods was close to the average, and the
newly re-developed city centre neighbourhoods in Shanghai
had higher than average number of younger people, although
this was not the case in Beijing.
 URBAN REVITALISATION IN CHINESE CITIES

Chart 1: Age structure in Beijing

Below 25 25–44 45–59 no less than 60

0.5
0.45
0.4
0.35
0.3
0.25
0.2
0.15
0.1
0.05
0
Southern Luoguxiang Northern Shaoyaoju Ju'er Beijing

Chart 1: Age structure in Shanghai

Below 25 25–44 45–59 no less than 60

0.45
0.4
0.35
0.3
0.25
0.2
0.15
0.1
0.05
0
Kangjianong Shibo Jiayuan Yangguang Cuizhuyuan Shanghai

31
Physical characteristics and socio-economic profile

The educational level also reflects this same trend towards

younger populations in a more explicit way. Compared with the
average, residents of the traditional communities in both Beijing
and Shanghai had relatively low average educational levels
(chart 2). The overwhelming majority of residents in the two
communities only had secondary school education. While
education level was higher in the peripheral neighbourhoods,
than in Type One neighbourhoods, the real difference emerged
when we looked at the newly re-developed city centre
neighbourhoods. Here, there is a much higher proportion of
college graduates than there are in the other neighbourhoods.

Chart 2: Education level in Beijing

Illiterate Primary school Secondary school College/university and above

0.7

0.6

0.5

0.4

0.3

0.2

0.1

0
Southern Luoguxiang Northern Shaoyaoju Ju'er Beijing

Chart 2: Education level in Shanghai

Illiterate Primary school Secondary school College/university and above

0.9
0.8
0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
Kangjianong Shibo Jiayuan Yangguang Cuizhuyuan Shanghai

32
 URBAN REVITALISATION IN CHINESE CITIES

Similarly, the unemployment rate in the traditional
neighbourhoods was higher than in the newly-developed
peripheral communities and the newly re-developed city
centre areas. However what was clear was that there was far
less unemployment in the newly redeveloped areas and the
difference between the other two areas was far less noticeable.
The primary reason for the high level of unemployment in the
traditional neighbourhoods is that most residents used to work in
the industrial sectors and their housing was assigned by their
work units. During the period of industrial restructuring, many
manufacturing workers were laid off and were unable to relocate
to other areas because of their low incomes. This has resulted in
unemployment in the traditional areas such as South Luoguxiang
and Kangjia Nong being higher compared with other areas,
which house people from a much wider range of occupations
and professions.

Chart 3: Occupation status in Beijing

Employed Self-employed Unemployed Retired Student

0.6

0.5

0.4

0.3

0.2

0.1

0
Southern Luoguxiang Northern Shaoyaoju Ju'er

Chart 3: Occupation status in Shanghai

Employed Self-employed Unemployed Retired Student

0.6

0.5

0.4

0.3

0.2

0.1

0
Kangjianong Shibo Jiayuan Yangguang Cuizhuyuan

33
Physical characteristics and socio-economic profile

With regard to economic status, the three types of
neighbourhood also showed differences. The traditional
communities, Kangjia Nong in Shanghai and South Luoguxiang
in Beijing, had high concentrations of low-income residents.
According to a survey by Credit Suisse of eight major Chinese
cities in 2007, the average family monthly income in Beijing was
5,528 Yuan. However, three-quarters of those surveyed in South
Luoguxiang said that their monthly family income was below
3,000 Yuan, and a quarter of the households had a monthly
income of less than 1,500 Yuan (Figure 14). The same situation
occurs in Shanghai as well, where in 2007 the Credit Suisse
survey reported that the average family monthly income in
Shanghai is 5,816 Yuan. However, three-quarters of the
respondents in Kangjia Nong said that their monthly family
income was below 3,000 Yuan. The situation was slightly better
in the new neighbourhoods in the peripheries. Looking first at
Beijing, only 59.38% of those responding in North Shaoyaoju
had family monthly income below 3,000 Yuan, However, the
highest levels of income were in the newly re-developed city
centre neighbourhoods, with 45% of respondents having a
monthly income of over 6,000 Yuan per month per family in
Yangguang Cuizhuyuan in Shanghai, and 25% in Ju’er Hutong
in Beijing.

Chart 4: Households’ monthly income in Beijing

Less than 1500 1500-3000 3000-6000 More than 6000

0.6

0.5

0.4

0.3

0.2

0.1

0
Southern Luoguxiang Northern Shaoyaoju Ju'er

Chart 4: Households’ monthly income in Shanghai

Less than 1500 1500-3000 3000-6000 More than 6000

0.5
0.45
0.4
0.35
0.3
0.25
0.2
0.15
0.1
0.05
0
Kangjianong Shibo Jiayuan Yangguang Cuizhuyuan

34
 URBAN REVITALISATION IN CHINESE CITIES

In conclusion, when comparing the neighbourhoods involved

in the different city-centre regeneration projects in both Beijing
and Shanghai, a number of trends can be seen. Firstly, the
initial emphasis in the redevelopment of the city centre was to
target the middle and upper income classes, with lower income
classes being relocated. However, as a result of increasing
resistance to this process by the original residents, developers
have needed to adopt a more consensual approach, involving
discussion with the existing residents and local authorities. As
a consequence of this, later phases of inner-city development
sought to provide a means by which some of
the existing residents – admittedly those with some degree
of wealth or status – were able to remain and purchase their
property at a significant discount.

Secondly, the process of relocation to the peripheries has

actually been seen by some of those involved as an opportunity
to benefit financially, either by negotiating with the developers
on the property that they are being forced to leave or by
ensuring that the properties that they move to are prime
properties, which can be sold at market value.

In conclusion, there are clear winners and losers from

the process. The neighbourhoods in the new city-centre
communities tended to have a higher socio-economic status,
particularly in terms of education level and income, while
residents in the peripheral community had a similar profile
to the people living in the traditional areas. In the process of
these property-led regeneration projects, residents with higher
socio-economic status have displaced residents with lower
status. It would seem, therefore, that gentrification is a reality
in many of these processes.

...the initial emphasis in the

redevelopment of the city centre was
to target the middle and upper income
classes, with lower income classes
being relocated.

35
05 Access to amenities and sense of safety
Another important aspect of the urban fabric is the ability of
residents to access and make use of local amenities in the
neighbourhood and the degree to which they feel safe and
secure in their neighbourhood.
5.1 Ease of access to important city amenities
As can be seen from chart 5, in both Beijing and Shanghai, the
traditional neighbourhoods scored highest in every category
for ease of access to local amenities and services. The residents
of the areas of city-centre re-development also seemed happy
with the provision of local amenities and services, but it
emerges that the residents of the newly-developed peripheral
areas are not well-served.
The most significant distinctions occurred when residents were
asked about whether they had good access to health service
providers. In Beijing, access to health care was worst in the
peripheral communities, and the best access to health care
was actually enjoyed by the traditional communities.
The same story emerges in Shanghai, where the peripheral
neighbourhoods also have the worst access to health care and
the traditional neighbourhoods the best. Indeed, a major
complaint of the residents of the new communities to their
Neighbourhood Committee in the peripheries in both Beijing
and Shanghai was the lack of access to doctors. Even for those
having some kind of health support in the neighbourhood clinic,
they had to wait in long queues. Good access to health services
is an indispensable component of a high quality of life,
especially for the aging people who make up a relative higher
proportion of the population of these areas than the average
in both Beijing and Shanghai as a whole.
The picture that emerges from the responses is that the views
of the residents are influenced by their socio-economic and
cultural status. In traditional neighbourhoods, which have a
very stable and long-standing population, they feel that they
are well-served by the immediate local area and have a full
range of amenities and services easily available to them. This
reflects the long-standing nature of the community, in which
many amenities and services have developed over a long period
36
of time. In the newly-developed city-centre neighbourhoods,
the view is that access to entertainment and shops is not so
easy, which may reflect the willingness of younger and more
affluent residents to travel to make use of such facilities over
a much wider area of the city. The residents of the peripheral
neighbourhoods seem to fare worse and, while they have
relatively easy access to shops and other services, they are
generally not of such good quality as those enjoyed by the
city centre residents.
Meanwhile, significant differences emerge when we look at
the accessibility to the workplace or school, to entertainment
facilities, and to government and other public services between
city centre and peripheral locations, with the situation being
much worse for the peripheral locations. The exception to this
is when we look at access to such amenities as stores and
restaurants, where there is little difference – this is probably
due to the fact that the peripheral development in Beijing was
established some 15 years ago, so these amenities have had
time to develop. Other aspects of the community are not so
well-provided for. The nearest green space for the residents
of North Shaoyaoju in Beijing is some 2 kilometres away, and
scenes of thousands of residents walking to this area was
reported by the popular TV programme ‘Special Attention’
on Beijing TV Channel 3 last year.
In Shanghai, access to work place/school and to amenities is
considerably different between the central and the peripheral
communities, although the access to entertainment facilities and
to government and other public service in the peripheral areas is
not much worse than for the central neighbourhoods. A three-
storey multifunctional building for the residents, providing indoor
sports facilities and entertainment had been built in Shibo Jiayuan.
Nevertheless, residents who moved to the peripheral
neighbourhoods in both Shanghai and Beijing found they had to
spend far longer travelling to work. Only 30.5% residents in the
peripheral neighbourhoods could get to their workplace within
half an hour, while 40% of the residents spent between half an
hour and hour, with the remainder having to spend over an hour
getting to work.
 URBAN REVITALISATION IN CHINESE CITIES

Chart 5: Ease of access in Beijing

1.2 Have good access to work place/school

Have good accessibility to local amenities
1
Have good access to entertainment facilities
0.8 Have good access to health service providers

0.6 Have good access to government and other

public sector office

0.4

0.2

0
Southern Luoguxiang Northern Shaoyaoju Ju'er

Chart 5: Ease of access in Shanghai

1 Have good access to work place/school

0.9 Have good accessibility to local amenities
0.8
Have good access to entertainment facilities
0.7
Have good access to health service providers
0.6
0.5 Have good access to government and other
public sector office
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
Kangjianong Shibo Jiayuan Yangguang Cuizhuyuan

37
Access to amenities and sense of safety

Although the residents who were moved from the downtown

area during the regeneration process enjoyed the improvements
in their new living environment (having moved from quite poor
quality and densely populated living accommodation), it is clear
that some positive factors were lost in the process. What we
found was that the inner-city neighbourhoods – whether
redeveloped or not - had advantages both in commuting
distance and in commuting time compared with the new
peripheral neighbourhoods. The most significant differences
that we found were in relation to work places, schools, and
the health services. While a large number of residents in the
inner-city neighbourhoods could access their destinations
by walking or by bicycle within 15 minutes, the residents of the
peripheral neighbourhoods had to use public or – more likely -
private transportation, and had to travel for a much longer time.
This is not only because of the increased commuting distance,
but also because of the lack of a public transport system.

5.2 Sense of safety

An interesting finding emerges when looking at residents’
sense of safety, as shown in chart 6. It is in the traditional areas
– where the residents pay the least amount in charges – where
there is the highest sense of safety. At the opposite extreme, in
the new peripheral neighbourhoods, safety is funded out of the
service charge paid to the Property Management Company,
which is extremely high, and yet the residents felt the least
sense of safety; This is brought into stark relief when residents
were asked whether they would be willing to pay extra for
dedicated security provision in their area. Every single resident
who responded in the peripheral neighbourhoods said that they
would be willing to do so, whereas no residents in the traditional
areas felt that there was a need for this. The situation in the
neighbourhoods that had been re-developed in the city centre
was somewhere between these two extremes.

This reflects social and cultural patterns. The residents in the

peripheral neighbourhoods felt that, because neighbours are not
familiar with each other, if they saw someone carrying furniture
from their neighbour’s apartment, they might simply come to the
conclusion that his neighbour was moving out. In contrast, if the
residents in the traditional neighbourhood saw people that they
were suspicious about walking in the lane, they would alert their
neighbours; if they heard someone calling for help, they would
go out to see what had happened. If an elderly people hadn’t
been seen for a while, neighbours would knock on their door to
see if they had had an accident.

38
 URBAN REVITALISATION IN CHINESE CITIES

Chart 6: Sense of safety in Beijing

1.2 Feel safe in the neighbourhood

People in this area would do something

1 if a house was being broken into

Have been a subject of crime in the

neighbourhood (e.g. robbing, vandalism)
0.8
Would be afraid to walk alone in the
neighbourhood after dark
0.6
Pay for any kind of safety provider

0.4

0.2

0
Southern Luoguxiang Northern Shaoyaoju Ju'er

Chart 6: Sense of safety in Shanghai

0.9 Feel safe in the neighbourhood

0.8 People in this area would do something

if a house was being broken into
0.7
Have been a subject of crime in the
neighbourhood (e.g. robbing, vandalism)
0.6
Would be afraid to walk alone in the
0.5 neighbourhood after dark

0.4 Pay for any kind of safety provider

0.3

0.2

0.1

0
Kangjianong Shibo Jiayuan Yangguang Cuizhuyuan

39
Access to amenities and sense of safety

All the residents in the peripheral neighbourhoods and

redeveloped inner-city neighbourhoods in Shanghai paid
for some kind of safety provider. The Property Management
Company hired security personnel to watch the entrances,
patrol the community, secure public order, and guard against
fire and theft (Figure 17).

However, it was reported that these safeguards did not secure

the safety of residents and their belongings. Many bicycles
were stolen; sometimes cars were scraped; each year about
five families suffered break-ins to their house, and few of these
cases were ever solved. In contrast, residents in the redeveloped
inner-city neighbourhoods in Beijing did not have to pay anything
for security, with the locally-organised neighbourhood watch
greatly contributing to their sense of safety.

Figure 17: Security measures in North Shaoyaoju, Beijing

From what has been discussed above, neighbourhood changes

resulting from property-led regeneration can be seen as having
a negative effect. The ease of access to local facilities and
amenities, the level of interaction with one’s neighbours, sense
of attachment to the neighbourhood and residents’ sense of
safety are found to be inferior in the new neighbourhoods in
relation to the traditional ones. It seems that one impact of
urban regeneration has been to reduce social capital.

40
 URBAN REVITALISATION IN CHINESE CITIES

One impact of urban regeneration

has been to reduce social capital.

41
06 Neighbourhood interaction and sense of community

Traditional neighbourhoods tend to retain and support traditional

life-styles and have close neighbourhood relationships.
Therefore, it was thought interesting to ask whether these
kinds of neighbourhood relationships change as a result of
An invisible line seemed
property-led regeneration. In this section, we explore the
responses of the residents in these areas to questions about to connect every resident
levels of neighbourhood interaction, neighbourhood attachment, together as one big family.
and sense of public participation.

6.1 Neighbourhood interaction

Comparing the three types of neighbourhoods in each city,
it is no surprise that neighbourhood interaction was very
strong in the traditional neighbourhoods. The redeveloped
neighbourhoods, whether in the inner-city or on the peripheries,
in both Beijing and Shanghai had the least neighbourhood
interaction. It seems as if the area that was affected the most
was the inner-city redevelopment in Shanghai, the Yangguang
Cuizhuyuan community.

Not surprisingly, the residents in the traditional neighbourhoods

had very intense social interactions in their daily lives. According
to the interviews, the residents knew family names of people
living in the same lane (probably 20-30 households). Moreover,
they were quite familiar with their neighbours’ backgrounds
living in the same courtyard or Linong: where they work, how
many children they have and how old each child is. Some of
them even knew which children had contracted rubella in
childhood. Regular visits to their neighbours after dinner or
at weekends was one of their usual activities; the more elderly
neighbours always did outdoor exercises together, such as
playing Chinese chess or poker, and walking dogs or birds.
An invisible line seemed to connect every resident together
as one big family.

In contrast, residents in North Shaoyaoju, the newly developed

peripheral community in Beijing, knew only a very limited
number of their neighbours, except for old neighbours who used
to live near them. Neighbours living upstairs or downstairs are
almost strangers to them. Even among the new neighbours they
had made acquaintance with, they were scarcely aware of their
neighbours’ professions or hometowns. Most of the friendships
between neighbours were shallow and did not develop further.
This situation is slightly better in Shanghai. Some of the residents
in the Shibo Jiayuan community had the chance to interact as
they used to do, entertaining together when they went to the
public space in their community, and in the activity centre.

In Ju’er Hutong in Beijing, which is a newly-developed

traditional area in the city centre, we found that the neighbours
tended to stop more often to talk with one another for a while,
but they did not spend a lot of time on daily activities together.
However, this was not repeated in the similar area in Shanghai,
where neighbours did not really talk with each other, even if they
frequently shared the same elevator together.

42
 URBAN REVITALISATION IN CHINESE CITIES

Chart 7: Neighbourhood interaction in Beijing

0.9 Neighbours are major contacts

0.8 Know the background of many neighbours

Regularly stop and talk with neighbours

0.7
Children of neighbours go together
0.6 to schools

0.5 Take part in entertainments together

with neighbours
0.4 Regularly participates in neighbourhoods-
based activites
0.3

0.2

0.1

0
Southern Luoguxiang Northern Shaoyaoju Ju'er

Chart 7: Neighbourhood interaction in Shanghai

1 Neighbours are major contacts

0.9 Know the background of many neighbours

0.8 Regularly stop and talk with neighbours

0.7 Children of neighbours go together

to schools
0.6
Take part in entertainments together
0.5 with neighbours

Regularly participates in neighbourhoods-

0.4
based activites
0.3

0.2

0.1

0
Kangjianong Shibo Jiayuan Yangguang Cuizhuyuan

43
Neighbourhood interaction and sense of community

6.2 Attachment of people to the neighbourhood
When we looked at the degree of attachment that residents
had to their neighbourhood, it was no surprise to find that the
residents of the newly-developed peripheral neighbourhoods
had the lowest attachments to their neighbourhood, in both
Beijing and Shanghai, although it was far more noticeable in
Beijing than in Shanghai. While the area with the lowest level
of attachment was the same for both cities, the results for the
area with the most level of neighbourhood attachment differed
between the cities. Residents of traditional areas of Shanghai
feel more sense of attachment than those of the re-developed
inner city areas, with the result in Beijing reversed.
Most residents in the new peripheral neighbourhoods in Beijing
displayed no particular attachment to their neighbourhood.
For them, the community was just a place to live, without any
special meaning. If they could afford to move to a house with
better conditions and in a better location elsewhere, they were
happy to move. Aside from the old neighbours, they seldom
asked for new neighbours’ help or offer help to neighbours.
In case of emergency, they preferred to contact their relatives
or friends since in their opinion, the relationships with their
neighbours was not close enough to make them feel at ease to
ask for help, and was not deep enough to enable them to totally
trust neighbours. Therefore, when asked whether ‘I would not
mind moving to a different location far away from today’s
neighbours’ the residents in North Shaoyaoju, the peripheral
neighbourhood of Beijing, most of the residents agreed, and
when asked if they would ‘prefer to move to a different location
but close to today’s neighbours if it is necessary to move’ few
of them agreed. These results were largely similar for Shanghai.
of Beijing, not only through the physical built environment,
but also by the traditional customs that they had kept, such as
singing in local operas and making special food for traditional
festivals. Residents preferred to live there mainly because of
their close relationship and attachments towards their
neighbours and the communities.
As far as the newly re-developed inner-city neighbourhoods
are concerned, the situation differs in some aspects between
Beijing and Shanghai. In the Ju’er Hutong community in Beijing,
people tended to live there for a long time not because of a
feeling that their neighbourhood was important to them, but
because of the good location and housing condition. When
asked in the survey, ‘Prefer a long-term residence’, ‘Unwilling
to move out even able to afford more modern apartments’, and
‘Feel attached to this neighbourhood’ the highest response was
in Ju’er Hutong. However, when asked if ‘People in this area
have lots of community spirit’, ‘Prefer to move to a different
location but close to today’s neighbours if it is necessary to
move’ they were nowhere near as positive. Equally, when asked
if ‘I would not mind moving to a different location far away from
today’s neighbours’ the residents agreed with that sentiment.
In Shanghai, on the other hand, residents do not seem to be any
more attached to the area than the residents of the other areas in
Shanghai, and did not seem to have any particular attachment
to their own neighbourhood.

In both Beijing and Shanghai, residents in the traditional

neighbourhoods showed a strong attachment to their
neighbourhood, and more so than residents in the newly
re-developed inner-city neighbourhoods, where the housing
conditions and infrastructure had been greatly improved. In the
traditional neighbourhoods, the residents were in particular
agreement when asked whether they would ‘Prefer to move to
a different location but close to today’s neighbours if movement
is necessary’, and whether ‘People in this area have lots of
community spirit’. Some elderly couples preferred to stay in
their less well-equipped houses, rather than moving into their
children’s large, modern townhouse simply because they were
reluctant to leave their neighbours and the environment. Another
story was told by a member of the Neighbourhood Party Branch
in South Luoguxiang, the traditional neighbourhood in Beijing.
Some senior party members who had moved out always came
back to join the party-led activities in spite of the commuting
time and distance, since they did not feel so at ease and happy
in party-led activities in their new neighbourhood as they did in
the old neighbourhood. Also, residents in South Luoguxiang
were very proud of their neighbourhood. They believed their
neighbourhood had enriched the historical and cultural heritage

44
 URBAN REVITALISATION IN CHINESE CITIES

Chart 8: Neighbourhood attachment in Beijing

0.9 Prefer a long-term residence

0.8 Unwilling to move out even if able to

afford more modern apartment
0.7 Feel attached to this neighbourhood

0.6 People in this area have lots

community spirit
0.5 I would be happy to move to a different
location far away from today’s neighbours
0.4
Prefer to move to a different location but
close to today’s neighbours if a move
0.3
is necessary.
0.2

0.1

0
Southern Luoguxiang Northern Shaoyaoju Ju'er

Chart 8: Neighbourhood attachment in Shanghai

1 Prefer a long-term residence

0.9 Unwilling to move out even if able to

afford more modern apartment
0.8
Feel attached to this neighbourhood
0.7
People in this area have lots
0.6 community spirit
I would be happy to move to a different
0.5
location far away from today’s neighbours
0.4 Prefer to move to a different location but
close to today’s neighbours if a move
0.3
is necessary.
0.2

0.1

0
Kangjianong Shibo Jiayuan Yangguang Cuizhuyuan

45
Neighbourhood interaction and sense of community

6.3 Sense of public participation
The response to the questions about public participation turned
out to be quite diverse, not only between different cities, but
also between different types of neighbourhoods. However, one
common factor to emerge was the fact that people showed
a great willingness to participate in urban regeneration in the
areas that we looked at. Although residents in all the six
communities have limited experiences of public participation,
they were willing to be involved in and to present their opinions,
given the opportunity.
In Beijing, the residents of Ju’er Hutong, the newly re-developed
area, who generally had more experience of participation, were
the most positive when they were asked, ‘Have you ever
participated in regeneration activities?’, and ‘Have you ever
presented your opinion in regeneration decision-making
processes?’ compared with the other neighbourhoods.
Meanwhile, it also had the highest agreement rate on ‘Feel
responsible for doing something to improve my community’,
‘Willing to contribute to supporting and maintaining a good local
environment’, and ‘Willing to support and participate in local
cultural and historical activities’.
The situation in Shanghai was different. What we found was
that the greatest enthusiasm for public participation and for
environmental and historic improvement was in Shibo Jiayuan,
the new development on the periphery, although they had little
actual experience of this. While the residents of Yangguang
Cuizhuyuan, the newly re-developed neighbourhood in the
city centre, had more experience than the residents of Shibo
Jiayuan, what emerged was that it was the residents of Kangjia
Nong, the traditional city-centre neighbourhood, who were the
most experienced in public participation. They showed a high
concern for historical and cultural issues, but were not so
concerned about environmental issues in construction. The
interviews also found that, even when they were presented with
the idea of ‘community-led regeneration’, residents in Kangjia
Nong, the traditional neighbourhood in Shanghai, did not show
any great willingness to remain in their existing houses. They
seemed more willing to simply move out, rather than continue
to stay in their homes after the area had been regenerated.
This attitude is quite different to that in South Luoguxiang, the
equivalent neighbourhood in Beijing.

The residents of the traditional neighbourhoods were the most

likely to say that they were ‘Willing to participate in regeneration
activities’ and ‘Willing to present opinion in regeneration
decision-making processes’, but they have fairly limited
experience of participation and for supporting environmental
improvements. Meanwhile, impressed by the examples of
‘community-led regeneration’ in the West (e.g. where the
residents repair and redevelop their own houses, with the
funds and materials provided by the government), most of
the interviewees believed these methods might work well
and wanted to have a try. In fact, most of the interviewees in
traditional areas prefer to stay in their existing homes and to
make improvements to their physical living conditions, rather
than moving out, due to the excellent location and the warm
neighbourhood relationships in their existing location, as well
as the constraints caused by limited budgets.

Finally, the residents of the peripheral communities had the

lowest experience of participation, the lowest willingness to get
involved in participation, and had the least supportive attitude.
This is in sharp contrast with the experience in the newly
re-developed neighbourhood in the city centre – when the Ju’er
Hutong community was being regenerated, public hearings
were held several times, where residents were informed of the
plan and residents actively presented their opinions. This
seemed to be a useful experience, which may well have
encouraged the residents to get more fully involved and to
participate in the process.

46
 URBAN REVITALISATION IN CHINESE CITIES

Chart 9: Public participation in Beijing

1 Have you ever participated in

regeneration activities
0.9
Have you ever presented your opinion in
0.8 regeneration decision-marking process
0.7 Willing to participate in regeneration activites

0.6 Willing to present opinion in regeneration

decision-making process
0.5
Feel responsible for doing something to
0.4 improve my community

0.3 Willing to contribute to supporting and

maintaining a good local environment
0.2
Willing to support and participate in local
0.1 cultural and historical activities

0
Southern Luoguxiang Northern Shaoyaoju Ju'er

Chart 9: Public participation in Shanghai

1 Have you ever participated in

regeneration activities
0.9
Have you ever presented your opinion in
0.8 regeneration decision-marking process
0.7 Willing to participate in regeneration activites

0.6 Willing to present opinion in regeneration

decision-making process
0.5
Feel responsible for doing something to
0.4 improve my community

0.3 Willing to contribute to supporting and

maintaining a good local environment
0.2
Willing to support and participate in local
0.1 cultural and historical activities

0
Kangjianong Shibo Jiayuan Yangguang Cuizhuyuan

47
07 Conclusions and discussion
In conclusion, while most attention has been paid to the
physical appearance of traditional areas, we found that those
issues that support a healthy neighbourhood and rich social
capital - crucial elements of the well-being of residents - were
neglected. Moreover, the decline in social capital among the less
advantaged people concentrated in traditional areas could lead
to other social issues, such as social exclusion. Although there
was a pressing need to improve physical housing conditions in
traditional areas, regeneration activities progressed slowly in
the early 1980s due to the limited financial resources of the
local government. After the establishment of land markets in
the late 1980s, property-led regeneration has since the 1990s
become the dominant approach to the redevelopment of
traditional areas, largely stimulated by huge profits and
government encouragement. As a consequence, large-scale
reconstruction projects were launched. This study was aimed
at tracing what happened as a result of the break-up and
displacement of neighbourhoods in this process.
Property-led redevelopment has encouraged downtown
gentrification in both Beijing and Shanghai. In central areas,
as the condition of housing and public space is improved after
regeneration, housing prices tend to increase significantly.
Consequently, only a limited number of the original residents
could afford to continue to live in the same area after
redevelopment, even with the discounted price or
compensation offered by the developer. Therefore, most
residents had to move to the periphery.
Looking at the six case studies, what have been the physical,
social and community impacts? Property-led regeneration
projects have undoubtedly provided people with modern
apartments, but at the same time it has reduced their ease
of access to work and other activities. At the same time, the
former intensive neighbourhood interactions and sense of
attachment to place have reduced significantly, implying a
decrease of neighbourhood social capital.
However, the study also found that it is possible to maintain
and enhance neighbourhood relationships and quality of life
not just in the traditional neighbourhoods but also, with
provision of public space and good amenities, in the newly
redeveloped areas. These new communities, with more public
space and good exercise facilities, showed high levels of
neighbourhood interaction and attachment.
In particular, Beijing seems to have a better predisposition
towards ‘community-led’ regeneration than Shanghai, which
may be a factor of the extremely bad housing condition and
high population density in central Shanghai city. As many of
the existing buildings in Kangjia Nong are dilapidated, with little
design or architectural merit, and no supporting infrastructure,
there is little that is worth preserving.
48
Based on these findings, this study emphasises the necessity
for improving the regeneration approach adopted in traditional
areas so as to improve the social well-being of local residents.
Suggestions are as follows:
Firstly, there should be greater involvement of government
organisations at the local and regional scale in the
regeneration of traditional areas, as well as universities
and other relevant organizations. This would mean that the
government and other stakeholders, together with real estate
developers, should be fully involved in the regeneration
activities, as leaving everything to real estate developers may
lead to future problems. However, in this, the role of the market
cannot be ignored.
Secondly, while an overall master plan is important to
coordinate approaches, an incremental approach to the
regeneration of traditional areas should be adopted. Houses in
traditional areas should not be simply demolished and rebuilt on a
large scale. Instead, it is better to repair and reconstruct them
according to individual conditions on a case by case basis.
Thirdly, the rhythm and rate of the regeneration of
traditional areas should be controlled. Since property-led
regeneration was introduced at a dramatic rate during the
1990s, local government did not have enough time to react
to the unpredicted problems that arose from the process.
Therefore, a long-term plan should be mapped out to control
the regeneration process, which can take account of the
interests of all stakeholders.
Fourthly, re-housing a neighbourhood in its original
location is seen as the most effective and acceptable way
of regenerating traditional areas. Social structures can be
maintained with the original households and traditional
appearances. Therefore, efforts should be made to develop
financial structures that allow developers to make redevelopment
and re-construction of these areas cost-effective. However, if it
is impossible to keep everyone together in their original location,
it is better to relocate them to locations that are as close as
possible to their original location.
 URBAN REVITALISATION IN CHINESE CITIES

Fifthly, if it is decided to create new residential

communities, then more open space and neighbourhood-
based activities should be provided. Most residents in the
newly developed neighbourhood on the periphery of Shanghai,
Shibo Jiayuan, appreciated their courtyards and plentiful open It is time for the public to
space, not only for the convenience and fun that they brought participate and have an
to their daily lives, but also for the space that they provided for
exercise and entertainments, where they were able to meet and influence in the process of
socialise with their neighbours. In contrast, in the same type of urban regeneration in China.
neighbourhood in Beijing, North Shaoyaoju, residents complained
that the lack of open space within and nearby the community
greatly reduced their chance to socialise with their neighbours.
Moreover, societies and neighbourhood-based activities, such
as choruses, get-togethers, and English classes could help
neighbours to get to know each other in the newly-built
community as well.

Last but not least, the past experience of public participation

and community-led regeneration in the West should be
learned from (both in terms of the strengths, but also in terms
of the challenges it represents). Alongside the strong willingness
of residents to participate in urban regeneration, the views and
opinions of residents should actively be sought. It was
noticeable that in the consultation on the ongoing property-led
regeneration in both Beijing and Shanghai, residents did not
simply respond in a negative fashion but put forward
constructive criticism of the proposals, many of which echoed
the concerns expressed about property-led urban regeneration
in the West.

These considerations prove that it is time for the public to

participate and have an influence in the process of urban
regeneration in China.

49
References
Atkinson, R (2004) the evidence on the impact of gentrification:
new lessons for the urban renaissance? in: European Journal of
Housing Policy, 4(1), 107–131.
Beijing Construction Committee (2007) Take use of the old city
reconstruction to promote new urbanisation, available at
<http://www.bjjs.gov.cn/Portal0/Info Module_ 457/Pager15.
htm>, accessed on 10th March, 2007.
Beijing Construction Committee (2003) Year Report of Beijing
construction committee, available at <http://www.bjjs.gov.cn/
Portal0/InfoModule_457/Pager15.htm>, accessed on 10th
March, 2007.
Beijing Municipal Government (2002) Protection Layout
for 25 Pieces of Protected Historical and Cultural Blocks,
Beijing: Beijing Municipal Government.
Beijing Statistical Bureau (2006) Beijing Statistics Yearbook
2006, Beijing: China Statistical Press, available at <http://www.
bjstats.gov.cn/tjnj/2006-tjnj>, accessed 26th December, 2006.
Booth, P. (2002) From property rights to public control, in:
Town Planning Review, Vol.73, No.2, 2002, pp.153-170
British Columbia Round Table on the Environment and the
Economy (BCRTEE) (1993) Strategic Directions for Community
Sustainability, Victoria: Crown Publications.
Broady, M. (1968) Planning for People, London: Bedford
Square Press.
Brower, S. (1996) Good Neighbourhoods, CT: Praeger.
Brownhill, S. (1990) Developing London’s Docklands: another
great planning disaster?, London: Paul Chapman & London
Centre for Local Economic Strategies (CLES).
Carmon, N. (1999) Three Generations of Urban Renewal
Policies: Analysis and Policy Implication, In Geoforum 30,
pp. 145–158.
Coleman, J. S. (1988) Social capital in the creation of human
capital, in American Journal of Sociology, 94 (Supplement),
pp. S95–S120.
Chinese Encyclopaedia Press (2006) Chinese Encyclopaedia,
available at <www.cndbk.com.cn>, accessed on 16th May, 2006.
Coulton, C., Hollister, R. (1998) Measuring comprehensive
community initiative outcomes using data available for small
areas, in Fulbright A, K., Kubisch A.C., and Connell J.P. (eds.),
New approaches to evaluating community initiative, Vol. 2:
Theory, measurement, and analysis, Washington, DC: The
Aspen Institute, pp. 165–220.
50
Credit Suisse (2007) Study on China’s urban residents’
consuming behaviour, available at <http://big5.xinhuanet.com/
gate/big5/news.xinhuanet.com/fortune/2007-03/24/
content_5889526.htm>, accessed on 16th May, 2007.
Crump, J. (2002) Deconcentration by demolition: public
housing, poverty and urban policy, in: Environment and Planning
D, Society and Space, 20(5), pp.581–596.
Cullingworth, J.B. (2004) ‘The Evolution of Town and Country
Planning’, in: Cullingworth, J.B., Nadin, V. (eds.), Town and
Country Planning in the UK (14th edition), p. 14.
London: Routledge.
Fang, K. (2000a) Dangdai Beijing Jiucheng Gengxin: Diaocha,
Fenxin Yu Yanjiu (Contemporary Redevelopment in the Inner
City of Beijing: Survey, Analysis, and Investigation), Beijing:
China Construction Industry Publishing House.
Fang, K. (2000b) Contemporary Redevelopment in the inner
city of Beijing: Survey, Analysis and Investigation, Beijing:
China Construction Industry Publishing House.
Galster, G. (2001) On the Nature of Neighbourhood, in:
Urban Studies, Vol. 38, No. 12, 2001, pp. 2111-2124.
Gilg, A. (2005) Planning in Britain, London: Sage.
Geng, H-B (1999) the analysis of characters of Chinese big
cities’ renew in the 1990s, in Urban Planning, 1999 (7), pp.
13-17.
Guan,qian (1996) Lilong Housing, A Traditional Settlement Form,
Thesis submitted to the faculty of graduate studies and research
in partial fulfilments of the requirements of the degree of master
of architecture, Mcgill university, Montreal, July 1996.
Goetz G. E. (2003) Clearing the Way: Deconcentration the Poor
in Urban America, Washington, DC: Urban Institute Press.
Hallman, H. W. (1984) Neighbourhoods: Their Place in Urban
Life, Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications.
Hartman, C. (1971) Relocation: illusory promise and no relief, in
Virginia Law Review, 57: pp.745–817.
He S-J, Yu T-F, Fang L. (2001) The conservation and development
of social network in city renew, in Human Geography, Vol. 116,
No. 16.
He S-J, Wu F-L (2005) Property-led Redevelopment in Post-
reform China: a Case Study of Xintiandi Redevelopment Project
in Shanghai, in Journal of Urban Affairs, Vol. 27, No. 1: pp. 1-23.

He, S-J Wu, F-L (2007) Socio-spatial impacts of property-led
redevelopment on China’s urban neighbourhoods, in:
Cities (2007), doi:10.1016/j.cities.2006.12.001.
Hsing, Y-T (2005) Global capital and local land in China’s urban
real estate development, in: Wu F-L (ed.), Globalization and the
Chinese City, Abingdon: Routledge.
Hudong.com (2007) the definition of poverty management,
available at < http://www.hoodong.com/wiki/%E7%89%A9%E4
%B8%9A%E7%AE%A1%E7%90%86 >, accessed on 16th
May, 2007.
Jacobs, J. (1964) The Death and Life of Great American Cities,
New York: Random house.
Keating, L. (2000) Redeveloping public housing: relearning
urban renewal’s immutable lessons, in: Journal of the American
Planning Association, 66: pp.384–397.
Kearns, A. Parkinson, M. (2001) the significance of
neighbourhood, in: Urban Studies 38(12): pp. 2103–2110.
Keller, S. (1968) the Urban Neighbourhood, New York:
Random House.
Kennedy, M. (1996) Transformative community planning:
empowerment through community development, in:
Planner Network, No. 118, pp. 12–13.
Lewis, M. (1961) the City in History: Its Origins, its Transformation,
and its Prospects, New York: Harcourt, Brace & World.
Li, B-J (2005) Neighbourhood relationship in Nanjing, in: Society,
No. 11, 2005.
Ruan, D-Q (2003) the social network in Tianjing, in:
Sociology Studies, No. 2, 2003.
Liu, J. (2004) the study of social network models, in:
Sociology Studies, No. 1, 2004.
Liu, Y-T Wu, F-L (2006) Urban poverty neighbourhoods:
Typology and spatial concentration under China’s market
transition, a case study of Nanjing, in: Geoforum 37:
pp.610–626.
Logan, J.R. Bian, Y. Bian, F. (1999) Housing Inequality in
Urban China in the 1990s, in: International Journal of Urban
and Regional Research, No. 23: pp. 7-25.
URBAN REVITALISATION IN CHINESE CITIES
Logan, J.R. (2005) Socialism, market reform and neighborhood
inequality in urban China, in: Ding C-R and Song Y. (eds.)
Emerging Land and Housing Markets in China. Cambridge, MA:
Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.
Lupton, R. (2003) Poverty Street: The Dynamics of
neighbourhood decline and renewal, London: The Policy Press.
Macmillan (2004) Public participation in regeneration strategies,
in: Bramley, G. et al., (eds.), Key issues in Housing, pp. 97-113.
Mee Kem, N. (2003) City Profile, Shenzhen, in Cities, Vol. 20,
No. 6, 2003.
NEHOM project, Department of Geography, University of
Bergen (2004) New Ideas for Neighbourhoods in Europe,
Bergen: University of Bergen Press, 2004.
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
(OECD) (2001) the well-being of nations: The role of human
and social capital organization for cooperation and
development, OECD.
Patel, S. d’Cruz, C. Burra, S. (2002) Beyond evictions in a global
city: people-managed resettlement in Mumbai, in: Environment
and Urbanization, 14: pp.159-172.
Peterman, W. (2000) Neighbourhood Planning and Community-
based Development, London: SAGE Publications.
Putman, R. D. (1995) Bowling Alone: America’s declining social
capital, in: Journal of Democracy, 6(1), pp. 65-78.
Putman, R. D. (2000) Bowling alone: the collapse and revival of
American community, New York: Simon and Schuster.
Shan, W-J (2001) Mixed residential area with different incomes
– evaluation and policy implement, in: Urban Planning, 2001 (2):
pp. 26-29.
Shanghai Statistical Bureau (2006) Shanghai Statistical Yearbook
2005, Beijing: China Statistical Publishing House.
Shao, L (2001) Review and Rethinking of Urban Renew Policy
in Beijing, in: Beijing City Planning and Construction Review,
No. 3, 2001: pp.20-21.
Sina.com.cn (2007) the definition of poverty owners’ committee,
available at < http://soul.house.sina.com.cn
soulpage/53/1060/2007/0330/1160259.html >, accessed on
16th May, 2007.
51
References
Stuart, C. (2006) From Low Demand to Rising Aspirations:
Housing Market Renewal within Regional and Neighbourhood
Regeneration Policy, in Housing Studies, Vol. 21, No. 1,
pp. 3-16.
Taylor N., 1998, Urban Planning Theory since 1945, London:
Athenaeum Press.
Van Kempen, R. (2001) Social exclusion: the importance of
context, in Andersen H. T. and Van Kempen R. (eds.), Governing
European Cities: Social Fragmentation, Social Exclusion and
Urban Governance: pp. 41–70.
Veldboer, L. Kleinhans, R. Duyvendak, J.W. (2002) The
diversified neighbourhood in Western Europe and the United
States: how do countries deal with the spatial distribution of
economic and cultural differences?, in Journal of International
Migration and Integration, 3(1): pp. 41–64.
Wallace, M. (2001) a New Approach to Neighbourhood Renewal
in England, in Urban Studies, 38: pp. 2163–2166.
Wang, J. (2003) Urban memory: Beijing traditional urban area
regeneration in recent 50 years Shanghai: San Lian Press
Warren, D. (1981) Helping Networks, South Bend: Notre Dame
University Press.
Wei, Y-D Yu, D-L (2006) State Policy and the Globalization of
Beijing: Emerging themes, in Habitat International, No. 30, 2006:
pp.377-395.
Wikipedia (2007) the definition of residents’ community,
available at < http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%A4%BE%E5%
8C%BA%E5%B1%85%E6%B0%91%E5%A7%94%E5%91%
98%E4%BC%9A>, accessed on 16th May, 2007.
Wu, F-L (2001) Real estate development and the transformation
of urban space in Chinese transitional economy: with special
reference to Shanghai, in: Logan, J. R. (ed.) The New Chinese
City: Globalization and Market Reform, Oxford:
Blackwell Publishers.
Wu, F-L (2004a) intraurban residential relocation in Shanghai:
modes and Stratification, in: Environment and Planning (A),
2004, volume 36, pp.7-25.
Wu, F-L (2004b) Residential relocation under market-oriented
redevelopment: the process and outcomes in urban China, in:
Geoforum 35, 453–470.
52
Wu F-L, He S-J (2005) Changes in Traditional Urban Areas and
Impacts of Urban Redevelopment: A Case Study of Three
Neighbourhoods in Nanjing, China, in: Tijdschrift voor
Economische en Sociale Geografie, 96(1), pp. 75-95.
Wu, L-Y (1999) Rehabilitating the old City of Beijing, Vancouver:
UBS Press.
Wu S-L, Hu S-S (2002) Neighbourhood relationship: the rule to
measure the social spirit, in: Society, No. 6, 2002.
Yang J-Q, Wu M-W (1999) Modern City Renew, Nanjing:
South-East University Press.
Yang, K., Li, G. (2004) Sustainable capital, Guangzhou:
Guangdong Education Press, pp.118-129.
Yeh A.G.O., Xu X., Hu H., 1995, the Social Space of Guangzhou
City, China, in: Urban Geography, 16: pp. 595–621.
Young, M. Willmott, P. (1957) Family and kinship in East London,
Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Zhang T. (2002) Urban Development and a Socialist Pro-growth
Coalition in Shanghai, in: Urban Affairs Review, No. 37:
pp. 475–499.
Zhang, Y., Fang, K. (2004) Is history repeating itself? From urban
renewal in the United States to inner city redevelopment in
China, in: Journal of Planning Education and Research, 23(3),
pp. 286–298.
Zhou L. (2002) the thinking about recently large-scale urban
reconstruction in Beijing, in: Beijing City Planning and
Construction Review, No. 4, 2002: pp.43-47.
He S-J., and Wu F-L.(2007) Socio-spatial impacts of property-
led redevelopment on China’s urban neighbourhoods, in Cities,
Vol. 24, No. 3, p. 194–208, 2007
Shanghai annual report (2007), available at <http://www.shtong.
gov.cn/node2/node19828/node78865/index.html >, accessed
on September, 2007.
Real estate newspaper (2003), Shanghai old city regeneration
process history, report Zhichao Liang, 2003. Available at
<http://fgj.yangzhou.gov.cn/News_view.asp?id=13980>
 URBAN REVITALISATION IN CHINESE CITIES

RICS research reports

RICS publishes research on a wide range of issues. Here is a selection:

RESEARCH REPORT MARCH 2009

Doing well by doing good? Exploring the needs and
RICSRESEARCH
DOING WELL BY DOING GOOD? AN ANALYSIS OF THE FINANCIAL
PERFORMANCE OF GREEN OFFICE BUILDINGS IN THE USA
Piet Eichholtz and Nils Kok, Maastricht University, Netherlands
An analysis of the financial applicability of a 3D urban land
John Quigley, University of California, Berkeley, United States of America

performance of green office register information system

buildings in the USA Roland Billen, University of Liege,
John Quigley, University of California, Belgium
Berkeley, USA, and Piet Eichholtz and
Nils Kok, Maastricht University,
The Netherlands
Research

RESEARCH REPORT FEBRUARY 2009

Life cycle costing of FINDINGS IN BUILT AND RURAL ENVIRONMENTS
PLANNING AND THE GENDER EQUALITYAPRIL
DUTY2009
FiBRE Planning and the Gender Equality
RICSRESEARCH FiBRESERIES
LIFE CYCLE COSTING
OF SUSTAINABLE DESIGN
sustainable design Planning and the gender
Duty – why does gender matter?
equality duty – why does

Gemma Burgess, University of

Professor John Kelly

John Kelly and Kirsty Hunter,

Dr Kirsty Hunter
gender matter?
Gemma Burgess, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom

Scotland Cambridge, England

Research
Research
01

RESEARCH REPORT JULY 2009 Permanent and transitory RESEARCH REPORT NOVEMBER 2009 Why do companies rent green?
RICSRESEARCH RICSRESEARCH
components in local John Quigley, University of California,
WHy DO COMPANiES RENT GREEN?

housing market dynamics Berkeley, USA, and Piet Eichholtz and

Real PRoPeRty and CoRPoRate
SoCial ReSPonSibility

Modelling Piet Eichholtz Maastricht University, Netherlands

price MoveM Nils Kok Maastricht University, Netherlands,

and University of California, Berkeley, USA

perManen ents in hou

Nils Kok, Maastricht University,
John M. Quigley University of California, Berkeley, USA

rket dynaMic
s
sin
housing Mat and transitory coMp g Micro-Markets:
onents in lo
cal
Michael White and Neil Dunse,
Heriot-Watt University, Scotland The Netherlands
Michael White
and Neil Dunse
Patrick Wilso
n, University , Heriot-Watt University,
Ralf Zurbruegg, of Technology Scotland
University of Sydne
Adelaide, Austr y, Australia
alia

Patrick Wilson, University of

Technology Sydney, Australia
Research
Ralf Zurbruegg, University of
Adelaide, Australia

RESEARCH REPORT JULY 2009 Making GIS work in developing FINDINGS IN BUILT AND RURAL ENVIRONMENTS JUNE 2009 Discovering property policy: an
RICSRESEARCH
MAKING GIS WORK IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES: countries: views from practitioners
FiBRESERIES examination of Scottish Executive
VIEWS FROM PRACTITIONERS IN AFRICA DISCOVERING PROPERTY POLICY.

policy and the property sector

Neil Stuart, Duncan Moss, Robert Hodgart and Paul Radikonyana

in Africa
Institute of Geography, University of Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom AN EXAMINATION OF SCOTTISH
EXECUTIVE POLICY AND THE
PROPERTY SECTOR
David Adams, Steve Tiesdell and Rob Croudace
Department of Urban Studies, University of Glasgow, UK

Neil Stuart, Duncan Moss, Robert David Adams, Steve Tiesdell and
Hodgart and Paul Radikonyana, Rob Croudace, University of Glasgow,
University of Edinburgh, Scotland Scotland

Research Research
1

All RICS research reports can be found at: www.rics.org/research

53
 rics.org/research

RICS HQ Advancing standards in land, property and construction.

Parliament Square
London SW1P 3AD RICS is the world’s leading qualification when it comes to
United Kingdom professional standards in land, property and construction.
Worldwide media
In a world where more and more people, governments, banks and
enquiries:
commercial organisations demand greater certainty of professional
E pressoffice@rics.org
standards and ethics, attaining RICS status is the recognised
Contact Centre: mark of property professionalism.
E contactrics@rics.org
T +44 (0)870 333 1600 Over 100 000 property professionals working in the major established
F +44 (0)20 7334 3811 and emerging economies of the world have already recognised the
importance of securing RICS status by becoming members.
RICS is an independent professional body originally established
in the UK by Royal Charter. Since 1868, RICS has been committed
to setting and upholding the highest standards of excellence and
integrity – providing impartial, authoritative advice on key issues
affecting businesses and society.
RICS is a regulator of both its individual members and firms enabling
it to maintain the highest standards and providing the basis for
unparalleled client confidence in the sector.
RICS has a worldwide network. For further information simply contact
the relevant RICS office or our Contact Centre.

Europe Asia Americas Oceania

(excluding Room 1804 60 East 42nd Street Suite 2, Level 16
United Kingdom) Hopewell Centre Suite 2918 1 Castlereagh Street
Rue Ducale 67 183 Queen’s Road East New York, NY 10165 Sydney
1000 Brussels Wanchai USA NSW 2000
Belgium Hong Kong Australia

T +32 2 733 10 19 T +852 2537 7117 T +1 212 847 7400 T +61 2 9216 2333
F +32 2 742 97 48 F +852 2537 2756 F +1 212 847 7401 F +61 2 9232 5591
ricseurope@rics.org ricsasia@rics.org ricsamericas@rics.org info@rics.org.au

United Kingdom Africa Middle East India

Parliament Square PO Box 3400 Office F07, Block 11 48 & 49 Centrum Plaza
London SW1P 3AD Witkoppen 2068 Dubai Knowledge Village Sector Road
United Kingdom South Africa Dubai Sector 53, Gurgaon – 122002
United Arab Emirates India
T +44 (0)870 333 1600 T +27 11 467 2857 T +971 4 375 3074 T +91 124 459 5400
F +44 (0)207 334 3811 F +27 86 514 0655 F +971 4 427 2498 F +91 124 459 5402
contactrics@rics.org ricsafrica@rics.org ricsmiddleeast@rics.org ricsindia@rics.org
JANUARY 2010/ VP/617RS