An International Garden City on the Taihu Lake

By Lin Junyi

Changxing, a city in northern Zhejiang, won the top prize in Division D at the International Garden City Competition in November, 2008. Pan Weilian, a professor with Xiamen University and advisor of International Garden Cities, commented that Changxing was the best of the five candidate cities whose application work had involved him. In addition to the top accolade, Changxing also received the first prize for its capability of sustainable development.

Alan Smith, the UNEP commissioner and secretary of the International Garden City Competition judging committee, spoke highly of Changxings success and promised to recommend Changxings practice to other countries.

Changxing did not use to look like a garden city at all, with all its cement plants, battery factories, and shuttle looms. People there were disgusted with the dirty sky and dirty water.

In order to change the worsening environment, Changxing put forward strategies to turn itself into a clean and environmentally friendly city. In 2006, it came up with the plan to build itself into an international garden city.

The city has formulated and executed a lot of concrete plans to crack down upon pollution. Many positive changes have taken place, but the first and foremost fundamental change is the enhanced public awareness. Over years, more than 10,000 suggestions from all walks of life in Changxing have been forwarded to the government departments concerned for environmental improvement. These suggestions came through the mayors hotlines, online forums, emails, faxes, and public hearings and other channels. Government departments are required to respond with concrete solutions within 3 to 15 days.

While the government is a high-profile player in this massive and all-round campaign, ordinary people play an active part in cleanup endeavors. Many of them take the urban improvement quite personal. Lou, a 76-year-old retiree, is a self-appointed environment and city-order inspector. He pedals his bike around looking for what was desired for environmentally and otherwise. In 2008 alone, he traveled by bike for more than 12,000 km around the city and took more than 3,000 photographs that captured moments of bad practices and bad habits that adversely affected the citys image. He reported his discoveries to authorities for solution.

Changxing on the Taihu Lake is more an international garden city. It has flourishing industry and it has rich cultural heritage. On October 1, 2009, a team from Changxing danced a dragon dance on the Tiananmen Square, Beijing in celebration of the 60th anniversary of the new China. This 160-year-old dragon dance is a natural cultural heritage. □