Newsweek | The Opening of the Universiade is Coming Soon. These Changes in Chengdu Community Make Life Better. Chengdu | Community | The Universiade
In less than two weeks, the 31st World University Games will open in Chengdu, Sichuan. It was not easy for Chengdu to host this Universiade. Due to the pandemic, the event that was supposed to be held in 2021 was postponed for two years. Chengdu waited for two years and also prepared for an additional two years. The Universiade is not just an international sports event for Chengdu, but the preparation process will also bring about changes in all aspects. Moreover, the attributes of the Universiade itself and cultural exchange are equally important. In recent years, the preparation of the Universiade events has accelerated the transformation process of Chengdu, including the ongoing community governance work in Chengdu since 2017. At this moment, the opening of the Universiade is approaching, how is Chengdu preparing? What changes are happening in the community? Is the comfortable living atmosphere and leisure feeling stronger? Newsweek's focus this week is on the Universiade and a better life.
A Universiade has attracted attention from all aspects in Chengdu. Last week, the Angong Community in Chengdu made its debut at the 28th World Architects Conference due to low-carbon and environmentally friendly practices such as increasing roof greening and promoting kitchen waste recycling, becoming the only community case in China to be selected for the conference. And community governance in Chengdu has been making efforts along with the preparation process for the Universiade.
This community, built along the river, used to have long detours for residents to relax or take the subway by the river due to wall barriers, which greatly reduced the accessibility of public spaces.
To build a tunnel, it is necessary to pass through a hot spring hotel next to the residential area. Under the leadership of the community, we have repeatedly explained the demands of the residents to the hotel.
Liu Qinghong, Senior Director of Chengdu Operations of Singapore Shouzhu Group: Actually, we think this plan is very good, but the most critical issue at that time was funding. Another concern was that it would definitely have a significant impact on the hot springs that had already been built and were currently in operation. In fact, it was these two aspects of concern.
Hu Dandan, Secretary of the Jiang'an Community Party Branch in Wenjiang District, Chengdu City: I will help him analyze. On the one hand, after this road is opened up, our residents will definitely benefit first, making it more convenient. On the other hand, our merchants can also reach a consensus on attracting traffic, which is also a very good thing for the overall development of the region.
After the company made a concession, two years ago, the passage for residents to go to Jiang'an River was finally opened, and subsequently, the increase in foot traffic also ignited surrounding businesses.
Liu Qinghong, Senior Director of Chengdu Operations of Singapore Shouzhu Group: After the connection, our business has always been relatively good. Even if it is a healthy development, we used to completely separate government behavior from corporate behavior, but now we feel that this is an interaction.
Opening up a tunnel not only facilitates residents and gathers popularity, but also enhances their participation in community affairs.
As the Universiade approaches, the streets and alleys of Chengdu are undergoing minor renovations to beautify the space. From the balconies of residents to the greenery in parks, the city is striving to welcome visitors from all directions with a brand new look.
He Zhisen, an architecture scholar who teaches at South China University of Technology, likes to pay attention to the relationship between architectural space and people. The rich urban atmosphere of Chengdu has always attracted him. Two years ago, He Zhisen participated in the micro renovation of a community vegetable market at the invitation of the Chenghua District Party School in Chengdu.
This vegetable market, located between three old neighborhoods, has less than ten stalls. The vendors bring fresh vegetables and fruits from their fields to the old city area early in the morning for sale, and then return to their homes in the suburbs in the afternoon. Every morning for over twenty years, the vendors and residents have met on time, making this small vegetable market full of vitality.
Associate Professor He Zhisen from the School of Architecture at South China University of Technology: In fact, this vegetable market is both love and hate for residents. Love is because this vegetable market really meets the needs of the local people and is very convenient. But at the same time, there is another issue, which is that they occupy a public space in one of the communities. Can we help them see this problem and improve it? That's why I am particularly interested in this vegetable market.
Residents are accustomed to the convenience of buying groceries, but they also crave public spaces for entertainment and leisure. Starting from the heartfelt demands of residents, He Zhisen led students to enter the vegetable market for micro renovation in the form of architectural workshops.
Associate Professor He Zhisen from the School of Architecture at South China University of Technology: We have decided to create a workshop that does not create anything. Can we teach the vendors how to organize their stalls? When they leave at 12 noon, can we move their stalls to the sides and leave this space for the surrounding community residents to use. The vendors in the back also developed this habit. After 12 o'clock, they put the stalls away properly, and the middle became a public space where the elderly people living here can play mahjong, even shuttlecock and basketball.
The same space can be transformed into different uses at different times, and with small modifications, He Zhisen has achieved a clever balance between the needs of residents and the livelihoods of vendors, bringing the psychological distance between different users in the same space closer.
Associate Professor He Zhisen from the School of Architecture at South China University of Technology: The Shuxiangli Vegetable Market is completely a space jointly managed by residents and vendors. It is a place where people cooperate, help each other, and reach consensus. In fact, one of our very important cognitive values is to respect the real needs of space users and try to meet the needs of different groups as much as possible.
How to build the attractiveness of Chengdu?
When it comes to Chengdu, those who understand the city may immediately think of its culinary and leisurely atmosphere. Therefore, there has always been the saying "rarely enter Sichuan", which refers to entering Sichuan when one is too young and may not have much motivation to strive in the face of a comfortable life. But after all, this is an old saying. Who said that a comfortable life is contradictory to hard work and hard work? Moreover, isn't fighting and striving for a more comfortable life? The recently released China Urban Talent Attraction Ranking 2023 shows that Chengdu ranks among the top five in the country in terms of talent inflows, fresh graduates, and master's and above talents. Obviously, Chengdu is a place that attracts young people. So, how is this attraction created?
R29 community living space worker Chen Rui: We have created a functional area for outdoor self-service washing machines in this area. You need to scan the code to enter the mini program, and the entire process involves washing clothes and drying them. If you wash them in this way, it will cost about four yuan.
It is available 24 hours a day, with no one on duty except for regular inspections and disinfection. These washing machines and dryers are located at the main entrance of the R29 living space on Chenglong Road Street. In the apartment building facing each other, there are thousands of young residents.
Set up a laundry routine and don't have to stand by. Men, women, and children can enter this community living space, enjoy a cup of tea, stay fit, chat, and spend leisure time leisurely.
Yao Nan, Director of the Second Institute of Planning and Design at Chengdu Planning and Design Research Institute: Actually, when we talk about urban inclusivity, we aim to provide a more convenient life for a group of people like the new "Rongpiao". Perhaps when he first arrived in Chengdu, he may not have such good conditions to purchase all the facilities he needs. However, we have provided some shared facilities in the community, which do not require him to spend too much money and can also ensure my quality of life. This is a very good thing.
The cafeteria in the community not only attracts the elderly, but also parents and children, tired tourists from shopping, and workers from surrounding office buildings can come to dine at mealtime. A self selected package is capped at 17 yuan, and there is also a special menu available on weekends. In the shared kitchen next door, if you bring your own ingredients, you can also have a cooking robot and a professional chef help you cook. Since the opening of the smart canteen two months ago, more than 45000 people have dined here.
Huang Xi, the person in charge of Chengdu Habitat Business Management Co., Ltd.: Nowadays, people work every day, but it is actually very hard. After returning home, if we still have to buy groceries and cook, it is really a waste of time and energy for us young people or those with families. So if there is such a community cafeteria downstairs, it can save a lot of time, do what you like, and achieve convenient living facilities. The current community cafeteria is the first cafeteria created by our "Xingcheng Habitat", but in the future, we may follow this path to replicate it. We believe that we can further enhance the connection with these residents in the community here.
On Tuesday of this week, the "Three Year Action Plan for Comprehensively Promoting the Construction of a 15 Hour Convenient Living Circle in Cities" was released on the website of the Ministry of Commerce, which mentioned that basic guarantee industries such as shopping and catering should be prioritized at the doorstep of residents; Developing quality improvement industries such as culture, entertainment, and leisure according to local conditions in the vicinity of residents' homes, making consumption more comfortable. In fact, the R29 community living space was jointly created with the street where it was located after local enterprises ceded a portion of the commercial space. Not only does it meet the diverse living, service, and leisure needs of surrounding residents, but it also injects new vitality into the enterprise itself.
After the seventh national population census, Chengdu became the fourth mega city in China with a permanent population of over 20 million, and nearly half of them are young people aged 14-45. This is largely due to Chengdu's community, leaving a good impression of livability. As the footsteps of the Universiade approach, some supporting activities are being held in enterprises that have transformed into community spaces, which also allows community residents to enter the process of community commerce and continuously establish a link between individuals and community commerce.
Liu Qinghong, Senior Director of Chengdu Operations at Singapore Shouzhu Group: Holding the Universiade here has allowed more people to understand us, which is a positive development for our business. In fact, it is mutually empowering with us, and we are also looking forward to the Universiade bringing us better commercial traffic.
To facilitate better communication among young people in Chengdu
The World University Games place great emphasis on communication among young people, and even the results of the competitions themselves are of great concern. In order for people to have better communication, many invisible walls between them need to be dismantled. In fact, for a city, the same goes for not only reducing physical barriers, but also becoming more open and inclusive, establishing more connections between people. How did Chengdu do this?
This Thursday, the Dayun Study Tour in Jiang'an Community was officially launched. This travel route is determined by a community council composed of resident representatives from various communities for discussion and development. In Chengdu, there are numerous community led affairs that not only involve residents, but also diverse entities such as social organizations and enterprises.
Lei Ke, Deputy Director of the Urban and Rural Community Development and Governance Committee of the Chengdu Municipal Party Committee: We always adhere to the development concept of putting the people at the center, widely listen to the opinions of our residents, and on this basis, mobilize various organizations of government agencies, enterprises and institutions, market entities, communities, and our people to participate widely in planning, planning, design, construction, and operation.
In recent years, a large number of new population have flooded into Chengdu, with the actual population exceeding 20 million. The interests and needs of residents have become increasingly diverse, and more attention has been paid to personal rights and fair protection. Risk issues such as education, healthcare, and aging population have become prominent. Social governance is facing severe challenges, and urban and rural development is gradually abandoning the criticized model of large-scale demolition and construction, and shifting to updating the existing stock. In August 2017, Chengdu was the first in the country to establish an urban-rural community development governance committee with the Minister of Organization serving as the director, establishing a bottom-up urban-rural development concept that efficiently coordinates various departments and follows grassroots democratic procedures. Community governance, as the peripheral nerve of social governance and the basic carrier of residents' lives, has become the core work in response to the people's yearning for a better life.
Yao Nan, Director of the Second Institute of Planning and Design at Chengdu Planning and Design Research Institute: At that time, we talked about micro updates. What's more important about it is that it is in sharp contrast to the kind of large-scale demolition and construction we used to do. It's all about small actions. After finding such small points as incisions, it actually involves some minor modifications and investments, but it can bring tangible improvements. This kind of change means turning some small disappointments from the past into small surprises in life, and this sense of happiness may accumulate bit by bit.
This is a site in Lidu Garden Community, Wuhou District, Chengdu. It is a forgotten corner of the park and an isolated island in the community. At the same time, it is an elderly cafeteria, an activity venue that combines sports, entertainment, and social activities, and other functional facilities are also needed by community residents. In the second Chengdu Community Beauty Space Global Creative Design Competition, it was included in the proposal collection. This competition has also attracted design institutions from 7 countries, including the United States and France. Among them, the Lidu Garden Community, which only covers an area of over 4000 square meters, won the award for the "Comfort Dam" micro renewal project.
Yang Meng from Chengdu Design Consulting Group and Chengdu Architectural Design and Research Institute Co., Ltd.: Community renovation is more about changes at the doorstep. We hope that everyone's doorstep can become detached, and you can easily do anything you want here, and complete it well. Our original intention and source for this project still need to be progressive from bottom to top. We need to gather opinions from residents and real communities, which will have a lot of requirements that I have never heard of before. Then we will find ways to incorporate these requirements into a very small venue.
Young landscape designer Yang Meng used to undertake large municipal projects with high profits, doing top-down directive design work. Later, she came into contact with these less profitable but more subjective and fulfilling jobs, and collaborated with diverse social entities, including residents, to build and govern a community issue. She gained a lot of pleasure in intellectual development. Experts explain that most global solicitation schemes are used to visually showcase the regional image of large municipalities, and are rarely used in community micro updates.
In the past few years of preparing for the Universiade, Chengdu's high standard urban and rural development process, which is highly in line with the spirit of sports, has accelerated, gradually presenting important characteristics of a modern society: the organic unity of vitality and order. Opening up and encountering a better life, diversity and inclusiveness, and seeing the refined needs oriented towards life, all rely on hearing the ideas of diverse social subjects, that is, realizing the new grassroots governance mechanism of community governance, such as the benign interaction between government governance, social regulation, and resident autonomy. In fact, the deliberation system behind the development of Jiang'an Community Tour Line is a national initiative. In addition, diverse social forces such as 2.37 million volunteers, 13000 social organizations, and 102 social enterprises provide services in the Chengdu community. Experts say that the era of people paying attention to their own rights and actively participating in the resolution of public issues has arrived.
Yao Nan, Director of the Second Institute of Planning and Design at Chengdu Planning and Design Research Institute: Actually, we have been talking about changing from management to governance. What we used to call management is more top-down, and it may express more, such as government wishes. At this stage, we are talking about governance, which is more about a relationship of equal dialogue, communication, and negotiation between the upper and lower levels. It is also about mobilizing the will and ability of multiple subjects, so it should not be an expression of the will of a single subject. The seemingly weak forces of all parties should be gathered together to achieve success. And as we do more and more of these scattered things, the changes in our lives may gradually shift from quantitative to qualitative. It looks like a faint glow, and when combined, it may become a brilliant galaxy.
Not long ago, when many people heard that Han Xu, the main player of the Chinese women's basketball team who had just participated in the Asian Cup, might soon have to return to China to participate in the Universiade to play in the United States, they expressed confusion. Do we need to use Han Xu to play in the Universiade? In fact, in the voice of people's roast, the concept has indeed changed. The breakthroughs made by the participants in the Universiade through hard work are certainly welcomed, but the establishment of closer communication between people in the city of Chengdu is destined to surpass their achievements. Han Xu doesn't need to come back, he has surpassed his pursuit of achievements, and the Universiade will be even better held in Chengdu. I believe Chengdu is already ready.
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Currently, the highly anticipated summer harvest work in Henan has shifted its focus to the northern region of Henan. According to the Henan Daily client, on June 4th, Lou Yangsheng, Secretary of the Henan Provincial Party Committee, presided over a special video scheduling meeting on the "Three Summers" work in the province, listened to the situation report, analyzed and judged the situation, and arranged and deployed the next steps of work. Governor Wang Kai made specific arrangements. On the evening of May 31, 2023, in Xiafutou Village, Xuliang Town, Boai County, Jiaozuo, Henan Province, villagers braved light rain in the wheat fields to harvest wheat. Visual China Map Lou Yangsheng pointed out that the current summer harvest battle in the province has entered the decisive stage. Doing a good job in summer harvest in northern Henan Province is related to the summer grain yield and seed safety. We should focus on seizing opportunities and make every effort to organize the wheat harvesting work in the northern Henan region, minimize losses, and protect the interests of farmers to the greatest extent possible. Accurate forecasting is essential
On June 4th, the return capsule of the Shenzhou-15 manned spacecraft successfully landed at the Dongfeng landing site. Astronauts Fei Junlong, Deng Qingming, and Zhang Lu all safely and smoothly exited the spacecraft, and the Shenzhou-15 manned flight mission was a complete success. What innovative technologies are there to safeguard the return journey of Shenzhou 15 in this mission? On June 4th, the return capsule of the Shenzhou-15 manned spacecraft successfully landed at the Dongfeng landing site. Xinhua News Agency reporter Lian Zhen photographed that "the sky and the ground" ensure the high-precision return of spacecraft. For the Shenzhou series spacecraft, the return and re-entry GNC technology is directly related to the life safety of astronauts. Taking the success of this return mission as a symbol, China has comprehensively upgraded its GNC system since the Shenzhou-12 manned spacecraft, which features autonomous rapid rendezvous and docking, autonomous adaptive prediction and re-entry return guidance, and has completed a comprehensive update and replacement
At noon today, a Chinese naval fleet consisting of Zhanjiang and Xuchang ships arrived at the assembly area of the "Comodo-2023" multinational maritime joint exercise. It is understood that the assembly anchorage for this exercise is 3 nautical miles long and 1.5 nautical miles wide, capable of anchoring up to 50 ships. Naval vessels from various countries participating in the exercise will also arrive at the anchorage today to complete the assembly of the "Komodo 2023" multinational maritime joint exercise, which is held every two years by the Indonesian Navy. This year is already the fourth edition of the exercise. The exercise will be held from June 5th to 8th in the city of Jakarta, South Sulawesi Province, Indonesia, including the port and sea phases. In the coming days, participating navies from various countries will participate in ship reading style search and rescue exercises, maritime interception and damage management exercises, aerial exercises, and other course objectives exercises
On the evening of June 1st, the US Senate passed a bill on the federal government's debt ceiling and budget, and the flame of the US debt bomb was temporarily extinguished at the last moment. The two parties in the United States have staged an extreme tug of war over the US debt bomb. Some experts believe that the US debt crisis is the result of the reckless politics promoted by the US dollar hegemony, and the underlying cause of this crisis is the highly polarized political system of the US. Since the end of World War II, the US Congress has adjusted the debt ceiling more than a hundred times. The recurring debt crisis will not only have a catastrophic impact on the US economy and people's livelihoods, but also continuously erode the value of US dollar assets such as government credit and US bonds, bringing significant and far-reaching impacts to the global economic landscape. 【