Shanghai: from a big city to a BIG (balanced, innov

I.
Shanghai is an international metropolitan city. Unlike other cities, Shanghai is a city in which there are sharp contrasts between the old and new, traditional and modern, and the East and West. It is these characteristics that have helped to create the unique feature of the city.

This feature can be seen from the Italian writer Ezzelino Magli’s three-day trip in Shanghai in 1924. In his travel log entitled A Gateway to China (Shanghai), he recorded his tour everyday. On November 4, he hired a rickshaw to go through the streets of Shanghai. He crossed the Waibaidu Bridge over the Suzhou River and entered the British Settlement, saw the buildings on the Bund and bought a lot of handicrafts on the Nanjing Road. On November 5, he hurried past the French Concession and came to the labyrinth of the old city, where he was worried about the hygienic condition, but at the same time amazed at the Chinese gardens and buildings. On November 6, he went to Xujiahui and Longhua Temple in the suburbs, and with Padre Gherzi, the only Italian he met during the trip as the guide, he visited the Observatory. On November 7, his trip in Shanghai was over and he took aboard a ship to his next stop, Japan.

Today, Shanghai has become a highly modernized international metropolis, but still maintains the fusion and balance between the old and new, traditional and modern, and the East and West. Shanghai has two unique features in its urban landscape. The first is the architectural contour that symbolizes the city of Shanghai. The Lujiazui Financial Street in Pudong was built in the 21st century, in addition to the old Shanghai Financial Street on the Bund. Shanghai is the architectural museum showing the buildings of different countries, with various architectural styles and cultural relics, and presenting diverse tastes and unique designs. The second are the trees along the streets of Shanghai. When driveways are widened, many cities have removed the trees along their streets, but the persistent Shanghai people still regard trees along the streets as the city’s tree of life. Whether they are the trees on the Huaihai Road or the Wukang Road, they have all added to the glory and warmth of the city. The trees along the street share the air and the fate of the buildings and the people in the city, as well as blocking the chaotic sight produced by advertising signs. These two features in the urban landscape integrate the city’s ancient and modern, the Chinese and foreign. From the first day of opening the port, Shanghai has kept step with the world. In 1895, the brothers Lumiere showed a movie in a cafe in Paris, and only seven months later, this fashionable thing quietly appeared in Shanghai. For more than 100 years, Shanghai has always been at the same level of the global information. This is Shanghai, both traditional and modern, both nostalgic for the past and embracing the future.

II
Shanghai is located in the East China Sea coast and the Yangtze River estuary. Its history can be traced back to six thousand years ago, but the urban area was formed in about the early 10th century. In 1267, the Shanghai town was established and in 1292, it was independent from the Huating County and became the Shanghai County, which marked the beginning of the city of Shanghai. Shanghai’s modern history began in 1843, when Shanghai opened port, and the Anglo-American International Settlement and the French Concession were established. In 1949 the People’s Republic of China was founded, and after the reform and opening up in 1978, Shanghai entered the modernization era together with the whole country.

Over 700 years ago, the Shanghai County had only a population of 100,000. Around 1843, its population was about 500,000; in 1949, it was about 5 million, and by the end of 2015, the population of the regular Shanghai residents reached 24.15 million.

The vitality of a city is directly proportional to its mobility. With its unique economic vitality and cultural charm, this city attracts large numbers of people to come for adventure and innovation. People communicate with each other and at the same time give birth to infinite opportunities. The 2010 Shanghai World Expo attracted the attention of the world to Shanghai. 246 countries and international organizations participated in the expo and 73 million visitors came to the expo, creating the International Expo record with the largest number of exhibitors and visitors.

But Shanghai is too large, and in turn the urban disease has become a serious impediment to the healthy growth of the city. Over the past 30 years, Shanghai’s population has doubled, the city’s road mileage has increased fivefold, and civilian car ownership has increased 23 times.

Shanghai needs a future-oriented strategic planning, so the “2040 Shanghai Urban Master Plan” came into being. Here I would like to use the three key words: balance, innovation and gracefulness to describe the future prospects of Shanghai.

（1）Balanced city
Shanghai has been developing an eco-friendly public infrastructure that works with nature.
The city of Shanghai has many similarities with the cities in Italy. They all have the tradition of “narrow road and dense road network”, and people like to live at the water front. In fact, Shanghai was also a water city in early days, with rivers and lakes covering over 11% of its surface. Following the industrialization and urbanization, the waterway was gradually replaced by the driveway. By the turn of the century, the city’s water surface rate decreased by 2.7%, which means in the past 20 years, Shanghai’s water area decreased by 25%. The “water city” became an “automobile city”. The new urban planning has proposed to build the overall planning layout composed of “one river network, 14 sections of comprehensive water management and 226 backbone channels”, so that in 2040 the water surface rate can reach 10.50%, which means to make part of the roads into waterway, and return water to the people.

At the same time, in order to make the Suzhou River and the Huangpu River become another important feature in the urban landscape, Suzhou River and Huangpu River received comprehensive management from the beginning of this century. The industrial terminal function is transformed into the hydrophilic pedestrian function. Huangpu District and Xuhui District on either side of the Huangpu River are linked with the hydrophilic promenade, and the plan to open up the 21-km shoreline from the Yangpu Bridge to Xupu Bridge on the east coast of the Huangpu River will be completed soon. A number of industrial and terminal areas on either side of the Suzhou River have also been removed, which not only has improved water quality, but also greatly improved the environment. By 2040, the river coast of nearly 20 kilometers will also become the public hydrophilic promenade. In the near future, Shanghai will return to the era of the “water city”!

The “Master Plan” also encourages public transport, bicycles and other means of green transport. From the beginning of this century, Shanghai has implemented the license auction measure to limit the growth in the number of passenger vehicles, as well as encouraging the development of green transport and electric vehicles. By 2020, a rail network will be established, consisting of 18 rail lines and more than 500 stations, with altogether a mileage of 800 km. In 2040, travel by public transport in the central city will account for more than 50% of all the means of the transport, and green transport will reach 85%. The coverage of one rail transit station within every 600 meters will reach 60% or more.

（2）Innovative city
Shanghai has the regional advantages of a relatively complete range of educational disciplines, and rich research and information resources. There are 68 colleges and universities, more than 5,400 high-tech enterprises, more than 300 foreign R & D centers, including more than 120 R & D institutions of the world’s top 500, accounting for 1/4 and 1/3 respectively of the total number in the whole country. In order to build an influential center of scientific and technological innovation in the world, Shanghai has identified indicators conducive to scientific and technological innovation. By 2040, R & D investment will account for 5% of the GDP, and the growth of the financial sector will account for about 20% of the city’s GDP. In order to become a traffic and information hub of “global reach and local touch”, it is decided that by 2040, the number of annual inbound tourists will exceed 15 million, the international passenger ratio reach 40%, international cargo transit ratio reach 15%, and the coverage of high-speed wireless data communications network will reach 100%.

At the same time, Shanghai will vigorously develop cultural and creative industries. In 2015, Shanghai’s cultural and creative industry accounted for 12% of the city’s total output value, and has become a pillar industry to lead and support Shanghai’s new round of development and an important force for Shanghai to build a global science and technology innovation center. By 2040, the employment of cultural industries will increase, accounting for more than 15% of the total employment.

（3）Graceful city
The “Master Plan” begins with people’s needs in life and work, and will create a 15-minute community life circle suitable for living, employment, travel and study, and provide high-quality public services for people of all ages, comfortable public spaces and open and shared community environment. The coverage of public service facilities within 15-minute walking distance will reach 100%, and public green space per capita reach 15 square meters. The city will build 226 river spaces blending water and green areas, forming a leisure network for slow-moving activities with a total length of more than 2,000 km, and for public exercise and leisure activities.

In addition to the Shanghai Cultural Square, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra Concert Hall and Shanghai International Dance Center in the last two years, the city will construct the Shanghai Library East, the Shanghai Museum East, both are in Central Cultural District in Pudong and the new Shanghai Grand Opera House by 2020.

With the Shanghai Library as an example, there are 237 branch libraries covering the whole city, offering one-card-through book loan services. When the 110,000-square-meter East Building is completed, it will go beyond the traditional library functions and become a center of knowledge, learning and communication.

III.
Shanghai will no longer pursue large physical spaces, but will create a BIG city. To this end, in all these years Shanghai has tried to limit and reduce its scale and enhance the urban soft power and quality of development by means of subtraction, and setting up the bottom lines and the red lines.

The first is subtraction. By 2040, the total planned land for construction in this city will be reduced from the “ceiling” of 3,226 km2 established in the original land use master plan to 3,200 km2, including 200 km2 “reserved space”. By 2040, the population control target will reach about 25 million, and the city will make efforts to enhance the urban vitality and population mobility.

The second is setting up the bottom lines. The city will shift its target from encouraging expansion in the traditional planning to emphasizing more on constraints and boundaries. The four bottom lines of population, land, safety and environment should be emphasized. Of the planned land for construction, sites will be reserved for major events and projects, and planning and control should be strengthened to cope with the uncertainties of future urban development. It is especially important to establish the concept that “security is the first element of urban development”, in order to ensure the safe and orderly operation of the city.

The third is setting up the red lines. It is necessary to set up the four red lines of ecological protection, basic farmland protection, urban development boundaries and cultural heritage protection. In the aspect of cultural heritage protection, cultural resources, historical buildings, natural reserves and etc. will be included in the red lines, in order to conduct regular assessments. There will be additional protected areas and expanded scope of the red lines as time goes on.

In the future, Shanghai will become an international metropolis in the true sense: a balanced, innovative and graceful city. Shanghai was once a “city of water”, but industrialization and urbanization buried a large number of rivers and lakes, and the city has become a “city of cars”. Today Shanghai is building a city of people suitable for living, employment and study through self-restraint and moderate development. Shanghai will become a global city in the true sense.