GainingFromG20
By Ni Yanshuo
The upcoming G20 Summit is not just an occasion for world leaders and top entrepreneurs to come together and discuss the trends and solutions for global economic development. The residents of Mantoushan Community of Shangcheng District in Hangzhou, host city of the summit to be held on September 4-5, have also been reaping the benefits from the summit’s preparations.
Grassroots upgrades
“I had never imagined that I would have been living in a house like this,” said 64-year-old Xuan Wenying, pointing to the new house behind her.
Rows of new neatly-painted houses with white walls and grey tiles have recently appeared in Mantoushan Community, each having a kitchen and a bathroom, as well as access to tap water and natural gas supply.
“It [my old house] was not like this. There was no flush toilet and I had to go out to clean my bucket toilet more than 100 meters away every day,” Xuan told ChinAfrica. She has been living in this community for 25 years. “My old house was in such a poor condition that when there was a typhoon, we had to go to the nearby school [to take refuge]. But now, we do not need to do that.”
Mantoushan Community where Xuan lives is a symbol of the rich history of Hangzhou, which was China’s capital during the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279). However, because of this, the community - identified as one of the ancient imperial cities - was not allowed to carry out large-scale renovation as many old buildings here are under provincial protection. For decades, residents here had to face such problems as decrepit houses, narrow roads and web-like electricity wires.
“Because of the poor conditions, many young people left the community, leaving mostly old people living here,” Lu Jun, an official from Shangcheng District, told ChinAfrica. “Fortunately, Hangzhou’s hosting of the G20 Summit provides a good opportunity for us to revamp the community as we need to prepare a good city environment for this event.”
In October last year, restoration of the community began, with the goal of upgrading Mantoushan to an urban landscape featuring unique imperial capital characteristics of the Southern Song Dynasty. During the process, many old houses were reinforced while others were rebuilt strictly according to their original style and appearance.
“We will make sure that the common people can benefit from the G20 Summit’s preparations. All G20related projects are closely relevant to people’s life,” said Miao Chengchao, Secretary of the Shangcheng District Committee of the Communist Party of China.
Lu and his colleagues inspected every home in this community and came up with different renovation plans for different houses.
“For instance, during our inspection, we classified Xuan’s residence as a D-level decrepit house, which means that people could not live in the house even after its reinforcement,” said Lu. Given this, Xuan’s house was reconstructed according to its original size, height and appearance. Meanwhile, the inner structure was redesigned, making place for a kitchen and a bathroom.
To ensure that each house could be equipped with an inside toilet, underground infrastructure in this area was renovated, with a sewage network built. In addition, an underground wire network was made available to replace the web-like electricity wires.
Improved lifestyle
Soon after the 2016 Spring Festival (February 8), Xuan and her neighbors moved back to their new houses. “We didn’t pay a single cent for the renovation, while receiving 3,000 yuan ($451) from the government to subsidize our rental fees during the renovation of our community,” said a satisfied Xuan.
The revamped community maintains its traditional appearance, but its residents now enjoy broader streets. There is also a Neighborhood Center, which includes a vegetable market, a library, a calligraphy center and an entertainment center. The newly built 14,000-squaremeter Mantoushan Park serves as the community’s natural “oxygen bar.”
Mantoushan Community has more than 6,000 native residents living in 2,646 households, of which around 1,000 have benefited from the first phase of the renovation program. “In the first phase, we did not demolish and rebuild all the houses; instead, we rebuilt those that had to be rebuilt and reinforced others. This way, with less money spent, we have helped more people improve their housing conditions,” Miao told ChinAfrica.
A corner of Mantoushan Community before and after renovation
Yuhuang Shannan Fund Town after remodeling
According to Miao, the government allocated approximately 100 million yuan ($15 million) for the first phase of the project. “We originally planned to rebuild all the houses here, which would cost 700 million yuan ($105 million). We gave up that plan due to too high costs.”
Lu told ChinAfrica that the second and third phases of the renovation program have already started. “Based on the experience we got during the first phase, we will do better in the next two phases,” Lu said.
Fast-tracked construction
The preparations for the G20 Summit in Hangzhou also accelerated the construction of a series of distinctive towns in Hangzhou, including the 3-square-km Yuhuang Shannan Fund Town in Shangcheng, which is home to 810 financial institutions, hence the name. These institutions have helped provide 124 billion yuan ($18.65 billion) of financing to 629 real-economy projects. Established last year, the town will expand to cover 5 square km by 2018, according to Miao.
Formerly a village, the town used to suffer heavily from its outdated polluting factories. Now, old factory buildings have been renovated into conference centers, and old residential dwellings were renovated into office buildings for the use of fund institutions, while local residents have moved into the new apartments built by the government.
To provide convenience for financial institutions, relevant local government agencies have opened offices in the town to ensure these institutions enjoy one-stop service.
Ruan Zhiyi, President of Safe & Rich Adventure Capital Co. Ltd., told ChinAfrica that the G20 event will help raise Hangzhou’s image in the world community, “which, in return, will bring more business opportunities to us.”
The booming town also provides the government with increased tax revenue. In 2015, local tax revenue reached 400 million yuan ($60 million). Miao estimated that the figure will easily exceed 1 billion yuan ($150 million) this year.
“The significance of the fund town goes beyond the increasing tax revenue. More importantly, it has made an important contribution to the development of the real economy in Zhejiang Province, and even China,” Miao added. CA