Chongqing - As Southwest China's Chongqing just put the mission of building the Chengdu-Chongqing economic circle as “Project No.1”, the urban renewal project has seen higher importance in building Chongqing into a high-quality life demonstration zone.

When the city expands to a certain scale, its development focus will turn to the existing assets. This is caused by the new policies that limit land development and wasted spaces occupied by old assets that can no longer generate profits.

Therefore, Urban renewal is economically and socially significant for a city passing the phase of fast urbanization.

An official with the Chongqing Housing and Urban-Rural Construction Commission said that building an “international, green, intelligent, and humanistic” modern metropolis should be achieved by upgrading in-depth urban renewal and improving the quality of the city.

Together with the Department of Housing and Urban-Rural Development of Sichuan Province, both places will cooperate in housing security, joint construction and sharing, infrastructure interconnection, and urban and rural construction for common prosperity, etc., under the development of Chengdu-Chongqing economic circle.

“There are two pain points for urban renewal. One is how to judge whether a certain asset is suitable for renovation, and the other is how to carry out project operation and keep a long-term operation balance,” said Ma Lihua, an expert on Chongqing’s urban renewal project at a city salon in 2022.

Ma said that Chongqing’s renewal projects cover areas in old communities, factories, shopping centers, historic blocks, and other public spaces in which the projects cover fields in public service, industry, infrastructure, space and environment, and public security.

A set of data proved the city’s work on the renovation. In 2022, the city started 1,304 old urban community renovation projects and completed the renovation of about 15,400 households in shantytowns. 

Up to January 17, 112 urban renewal demonstration projects have been started, and 36 have been implemented.

In 2023, Chongqing will promote 112 new urban renewal demonstration projects and renovate 2,069 old urban communities and about 16,000 shanties, according to the plan released by the Chongqing Housing and Urban-Rural Construction Commission.

Besides the projects above, Chongqing is expanding the city’s rail transit network and building more bridges. 

The public area renewal projects include the “two rivers and four banks” project and the mountain city footpaths, where the city also plans to improve the sewage treatment facilities to further green the urban environment.

The Chaotianmen-Jiefangbei area, the Jiangbeizui area, and the Danzishi-Longmenhao area, including the Yangtze River and Jialing River intersection area, enclose the “Two Rivers and Four Banks” core area. It covers a total area of about 16.2 square kilometers, of which the land area is about 10 square kilometers.