Building Nanjing at High Quality and Upgrading a New Image in a Leaping Manner

--An Interview with Mr. Dai Yongning, Vice Mayor of Nanjing City

　　◆Chinese by Wang Chengbiao, Cai Zuping

　　　Translated by Pan Xuebing

　　Nanjing has a history of over 2,470 years and is one of the four ancient cities in China. It is famous for its beautiful mountains, rivers and its history for an ancient capital of six dynasties.

　　Nanjing is surrounded by mountains, lakes and rivers. Its mountains, lakes, rivers, and forest are integrated into a whole body and the city is noted for its excellent physical geographical environment. People often admire its mountains like a coiling dragon and a crouching tiger and its river flowing at the foot of mountains constitute extraordinarily beautiful scenery.

　　As stated in one of Mao Zedong's poems, "The city, a tiger crouching, a dragon curling, outshines its ancient glories; in heroic triumph heaven and earth have been overturned." In more than 20 years after the opening up and reform, especially from the construction and development in the Ninth-Five-Year Plan, the economy and social development have made significant progress in Nanjing. A new urban scale and pattern has been basically formed. In recent years, Nanjing has been carrying out the goal of "enriching people, making the city strong and speeding up its development". And at the same time, Nanjing has set up a grand goal of taking the lead in realizing being comprehensive comfortably welloff and taking the lead in the realization of modernization. The 10th National Games will be held in Nanjing in 2005, the strategy of the development along the Yangtze River is carried out in Jiangsu Province and the economic circle of the Delta of Yangtze River is being promoted at an increasingly fast speed. All these events have brought unprecedented opportunities for the urban construction of Nanjing. The city that combines characteristics of an ancient city with modern civilization is changing with each passing day. And its distinctive urban development idea has aroused concern both at home and abroad. Therefore, our reporters, bearing problems of our broad readers in mind, had an interview with Dai Yongning, Vice Mayor of Nanjing.

　　Reporter: Nanjing has taken the 10th National Games as an opportunity and has comprehensively begun a new round of its urban construction. A new framework of urban construction has begun and the look of the city is changing with each passing day. As a result, its cultural characteristics are steadily turning up and human living environment is constantly being improved. Could you tell us what strategic measures Nanjing has carried out in its urban layout in recent years?

　　Dai Yongning: To build a new and modern Nanjing full of economic vigor, rich in cultural characteristics and with excellent human living environment, is the development target set up by Nanjing Municipality. According to the target, in the urban layout, we accept the strategic policy of "one evacuation and three concentrations" in order to carry out a framework of urban construction, to integrate urban resources and to optimize the spacious layout of the urban development. The so-called "one evacuation" refers to the evacuation of population in the old city. We plan to evacuate 300,000 people in the old city by building "one city and three districts" and the comprehensive transformation of the old city. (The "one city" refers to the Hexi new urban region and "three districts" refer to the Xianlin new urban district, the Dongshan new urban district and Jiangbei new urban district.) In such a way, the historical and cultural famous city can be better preserved, the human living environment can be optimized and conditions for modern urban characteristics can be created. The so-called "three concentrations" refer to that industry is concentrated at the development zones, so that there will be enough room for developing modern service industry. Construction is concentrated in new districts. We are making great efforts to enable the three new urban districts to become classified load-bearer regions for receiving 1.3 million people coming from the city proper and from other places of the country within 5 to 10 years. And higher education institutes are concentrated in the university town. Efforts are being made to concentrate nine or ten universities to contain 150,000 college students and teachers in three years and we hope the university town will gradually become a university town that is a first-rate one in the country and has certain influence force in the world.

　　R: The new round of the urban construction in Nanjing is surrounding the general requirements of being stronger, bigger, better and more beautiful. The adjustment of the administration division is combined with the speeding up of the development of Nanjing, the extension of the city is combined with the upgrading of connotation. Then the comprehensive competitiveness of the city is enhanced and the gathering service functions and radiant effects of the central city are strengthened. Could you tell us what is the development thinking in Nanjing's speeding up the course of the urban ring construction?

　　Dai: Projecting Nanjing's urban ring construction, promoting the progress of the urbanization and urban modernization, strengthening the gathering functions and radiant effects of the central city are the content of the important strategic thinking in the urban construction of Nanjing in recent years. The concrete development thinking is as follows. An extra-large city acts as the main guide and the new round of the extension and stretching out and the upgrading of connotation of the urban districts of Nanjing are to be completed at a fast speed. The satellite cities act as the backbone and four medium-sized ecological type of cities that have a population of over 200,000 for each city, are relatively independent and complete, and have complete functions and quite good infrastructure. Based on small towns that have professional features, a group of economically developed small towns are to be built that have outstanding brands, distinctive features and special functions.

　　R: Nanjing is a historical and cultural famous city. In the new round of urban construction, how to preserve and well transform the old city so as to display the scenery of mountain, water, city and forest and the characteristics of the old city?

　　Dai: According to the requirement that the new districts and the old city are being constructed and developed synchronously, the scenery of a modern city is displayed in the construction of new districts and the scenes and styles of a historical cultural famous city are mainly shown in the preservation of the old city. Emphasis is put on the construction of " a loop", i.e. the scenery belt of the city wall of the Ming Dynasty; on the construction of two kernel regions of Gulou and Xinjiekou. In addition, two rivers - the Qinhuai River and Jinchuan River - are to be harnessed. Three axes will be displayed. They are the axis line of six dynasties' historical and cultural features stretching from Zhonghua Road to Jinxianghe; the historical and cultural axis of the Ming Dynasty stretching from Yudao Street to Beianmeng Gate and the axis of modern times historical and cultural features from Zhongshan Road to Zhongshan Beilu. Four lines will be formed. They are scenery roads with their own distinctive characteristics: the Main Road of Eastern City, the road stretching from Beijingdonglu to Beijingxilu, the Main Road of Western City, the road stretching from Zhongshanlu to Zhongshannanlu. Moreover, "five streets" will be built. They are the civilization street at Wuhan Road, the Science and Technology Street at Zhujiang Road, the Cultural Street at Changjiang Road and the Commercial Street at Taipingnanlu and Mochou Road. Six pieces of cultural scenery are preserved carefully. They include Fuzimiao Temple comprehensive cultural region, the Chaotiangong Palace scenery region of six dynasties, the former residence of Gan Xi and residential region of the Qing Dynasty at Mengdong and Mengxi, the scenery region of the Presidential Hall and buildings in the period of the Republic of China and the region of former embassy buildings in the period of the Republic of China at Yihe Road. The comprehensive preservation and improvement of the environment of the old city is executed in order that the cultural connotation can be embodied and the historical scenery can be displayed. Thus a city bordering on the river will be constructed that integrates the mountain, the water, the city and the forest together and where the characteristics of an ancient city shine mutually with modern civilization. Therefore the fast development of service industries, such as commerce, trade and tourism can be promoted.

　　R: As a city famous at home and abroad, how does Nanjing go along the road of the sustainable development? And what are the main tasks and development goals in the next round of its urban construction?

　　Dai: The strategy of an ecological city should be emphasized. The project of the "Green Nanjing" is executed so as to ensure the urban sustainable development and here lies another strategic thinking of Nanjing's urban construction in recent years. We have further clarified the development orientation of the environmental construction and preservation and goals for struggling. It is determined that we should start from building a state-level healthy city, a national model city in environmental protection and the best human living environment city. The development thinking is expressed in the construction of "one city and three districts", "one evacuation and three concentrations" and "preserving the old city and developing the new districts". Great amounts of funds will be put in, large numbers of old buildings will be pulled down and large scales of improvement and construction will be carried out. The look of the environment, the environmental hygiene and the environmental quality will all be raised to a new level.

　　The new round of urban construction in Nanjing will be guided by the urban planning. Advanced urban planning idea is introduced and the drawing up of the planning is strengthened. In the recent period, the main task of Nanjing's urban construction is to build "one city and three districts" so that the urban layout and system can be further improved. The old urban districts are comprehensively preserved and improved so that the distinctive characteristics of mountains, water, city and forest can be further molded. The main-road framework of "six east-to-west and nine north-to-south" will be constructed so as to form a fast road traffic network within the scope of the central city. The subway line 1 and line 2 will be constructed so as to extend the underground traffic space. The construction of the key projects of the three bridges will be speeded up. A group of external traffic backbone projects will be constructed in order to strengthen the external radiant force and the influential force. The main urban section of Qinhuai River will be harnessed and three big sewage treatment systems such as Jiangxinzhou will be built, thus the water environment of Nanjing can be further improved. Six accessory gyms and sport halls of the 10th National Games will be built so as to provide hardware for the opening of the national games. "Two loops and four pieces" of the greening system in the main city will be constructed for building an excellent urban environment. A batch of key engineering projects for public facilities will be built so as to upgrade the urban comprehensive safeguard functions. The development of housing will be speeded up so that residents' living conditions can substantially be improved.

　　R: The urban constructions need large amount of capital input, can you introduce how Nanjing city puts the ideas of operating the city into urban construction to guarantee enough capital for urban construction?

　　Dai: Nanjing city emphasizes the ideas of operating the city, further enlarging the reforms of systems in investment and financing, and speeding up the reforms of the government investment project management modes. According to the principle of professional management and separating the four parts of "investment, construction, operation and supervision", the ways of directly organizing specific project construction and integrating the roles of referees and players in the past are changed. It is encouraged to set up specialized project construction and management companies and select construction or management units by bids and through market competitions. The further study and measures have been made to speed up building the urban construction investment and financing platforms and to quicken the urban construction investment and financing systematic reforms. From now on, the urban construction projects in Nanjing will adopt financing means of BOT (building - operation - transference), BOT (building - transference - operating), TOT (transference - operation - transference). In addition, direct financing functions of security market will be used to let urban construction enterprises be listed, issue urban construction bonds and explore to set up urban construction investment foundations. The reforms have saved urban construction management capital, invigorated state-owned stored assets, expanded the ideas of operating the city and input new vigor and power for the development of the urban economy and advancement.

　　R: The development strategy of areas along the Yangtze River is an important development strategy put forward to make Jiangsu merge into "Yangtze River Delta". It plays important roles for further promoting the fast development of Jiangsu. At last, I would like to ask you what is the influence of such development strategy for Nanjing's urban construction?Dai Shuining: The development strategy of areas along the Yangtze River will be emphasized. According to the general strategy requirements of " taking the Yangtze River as the axle, development across the river, echoing Shanghai and radiating the surrounding areas", the harmonious development of both north and south side of the Yangtze River will be achieved. This is exactly an important strategic thinking in Nanjing's urban construction. The development strategy along the river will be carried out. "Stepping from Qinhuai Times and marching toward Yangtze River Times" signifies the comprehensively speeding up the paces of Nanjing in realizing the goal of "enriching the people and making the city strong" and the goal of taking the lead in the realization of comprehensively well-off and the realization of modernization. It signifies the course of the urbanization and urban modernization is further speeded up in Nanjing, and signifies that Nanjing's urban construction has entered a new stage of a leap-type development and it has a great important meaning. To be more concrete, through the development along the river, three great strategic goals will be realized in the urban construction of Nanjing. First, the living standards of people along the river will greatly be improved so that the development gap will be reduced. Secondly, the formation of the modern urban layout of Nanjing will be promoted so that the functions of the central city can further be strengthened. Thirdly, it will promote Nanjing to become a first-rate residential city in the country and to create comfortable human living environment.

　　R: Thank you, Vice Mayor Dai, for receiving us despite your busy schedule. Finally I'd like to pay deep respect for people in Nanjing in the name of our broad readers at home and abroad and wish you a more beautiful Nanjing tomorrow.