Chapter 6
Cities and Towns: Planning in the City Region of Shanghai

1. City Region Planning Concepts

Shanghai aims to form a multi-layered urban system comprising the central city, new cities, central towns, and market towns, with a multi-core and multi-axis spatial layout made up of the Coastal Development Axis, Shanghai-Nanjing Development Axis, Shanghai-Hangzhou Development Axis, and cities and towns of different levels in the city region.

The central city refers to the area inside the Outer Ring Line, acting as both the center of politics, economy, and culture of Shanghai and the main body of Shanghai's urban system. Its population will not exceed eight million with an urban development land area of 600 square kilometers.

The new cities refer to medium-sized cities developed from the towns where the district or county governments are located or formed due to their major industries and significant infrastructures. According to the plan, there will be 11 new cities: Baoshan, Jiading, Songjiang, Jinshan, Minhang, Huinan, Qingpu, Nanqiao, Chengqiao, Konggang New City, and Lingang New City, each with a population of 200,000 to 300,000.

The central towns refer to small towns developed from market towns with reasonable distributions, advantageous locations, and preferable economic development conditions by virtue of their industrial development. Twenty-two central towns are planned, such as Zhujiajiao, Sijing, Zhoupu (Kangqiao), Fengcheng, Fengjing, Baozhen, Nanxiang, and Luodian, each with a population of 50,000–100,000.

Currently there are around 170 towns. Market towns will be formed through merging the existing organic towns in accordance with location, traffic, and resources. According to the planning, there will be about 80 market towns, each with a population of 10,000–30,000.

The central villages refer to new, modern, rural communities with local features, good environments, reasonable layouts, perfect infrastructure, and service facilities through the merging of natural villages. The plan specifies the population of each central village at 2,000.

2. Songjiang New City

2.1 Planning Background

Songjiang New City (SNC) is the result of a pilot project for the “one city, nine towns” urban development program. It is hailed as a model of Shanghai's suburban construction, embodying the functions and positions of new cities as regional centers of politics, economy, and culture. Therefore, the planning and construction of the SNC main town will be a key component of its planning.

According to the urban system planning structure of Songjiang District, the main town is located south of SNC, with Songjiang Industrial Park and Songjiang High-tech Park in the east and west respectively, covering a total area of 60 square kilometers. The economic zone is located in the northeast, Sheshan National Holiday Resort in the northwest, and the modern agriculture park in the south. The plan was compiled by the Shanghai Urban Planning and Design Research Institute and covers a period up to 2020. The midrange plan goes up to 2010 and the short-range plan to 2007.

2.2 Key Points

The guidelines for formulating the master plan of SNC main town include three main points: to open up and enhance regional

awareness; to transform functions and enhance urban awareness; and to maintain sustainable development and enhance environmental awareness. These three points will be strictly followed throughout the planning process, forming the directions of the new-round development of SNC.

Regional Awareness

The main functions of SNC main town are defined as follows:

• A modern new town displaying the overall strength of Shanghai suburbs.
• A main destination for dispersing the redundant population of the central city of Shanghai.
• The center of politics, economy, and culture of Songjiang District.
• An important higher education base of Shanghai.
• A garden town with beautiful living environment.
• A tourism town with favorable ecological environment and cultural landscapes.

First: As the central town of the region, the SNC main town will become the center of politics, economy, and culture of Songjiang District. The present situation shows that the main city should focus on the development of tertiary industry during the planned period. According to the plan, the main town will be built into the largest trade center in the southwestern area of Shanghai. At the same time, great efforts will be made to nurture markets so as to form a commercial distribution pattern with group companies playing the leading role and chain stores acting as the basis. Furthermore, it proposes the vigorous development of real estate, finance and insurance, transportation, and storage and other sectors to meet the needs of Songjiang District for developing the tertiary industry.

Second: SNC will contribute considerably toward Shanghai's efforts in establishing itself as an international metropolis in terms of overall strength. It can help disperse part of the population from the central city and take on some of the functions indispensable to the task of building an international metropolis with relatively low average land output efficiency. As a key town in Shanghai's suburbs, the SNC main town will take full advantage of its land resources to become a major location for settling the redundant population of Shanghai. At the same time, it will accommodate the overspill industries from the Shanghai urban area and develop industries that can perfect the overall industrial structure of Shanghai.

To relieve the population pressure of the central city of Shanghai, the SNC main town will attract population inflow through developing real estate, building a fast road network, and creating a favorable living environment. At the end of the planned period, the residential area of the main town will increase from 1,169.4 ha to 2,510.59 ha and the land utilization ratio will increase from 37.37% in 2003 to 41.29%, since the population will increase from 240,000 at the end of 2003 to 600,000 in 2020. As an important rapid transport artery, Rail Transport Line No. 9 will attract more population to the main town by linking the three city clusters of SNC with the central city area of Shanghai. The rail transport line in the main town is seven kilometers long with four stations, namely, University Town, SNC, Songjiang, and Songjiang Railway Station, benefiting the residents in different parts of the main town.

In terms of living environment, the main town will make full use of its existing natural and cultural resources, focusing on the development of an ecological and human environment. In green space distribution, it will follow the principle of networking, even distribution, and naturalization. The main town's historical environment will be protected and utilized to create sound and harmonious living conditions for Songjiang dwellers.

The SNC main town will prioritize the development of the University Town in order to ease the tension between the scarcity of land resources in the central city and the mounting needs for conducting talent training and building science and research bases. The proposed land area for Songjiang University Town is 388.6 ha. Currently, a basic teaching area of 2,401,200 square meters and a living area of 667,000 square meters have been completed. Shanghai International Studies University, Shanghai Institute of Foreign Trade, Donghua University, East China University of Politics and Law, Shanghai University of Engineering Science, and Lixin Accounting Institute are up and running, while the Shanghai Institute of Visual Arts is under construction.

Tourism is also an indispensable part of the main town's role in improving Shanghai's urban functions. By fully utilizing its advantages in natural and cultural resources, the main town can perfect the structure of Shanghai's tourism industry by offering more short-distance tourist destinations to the residents in the central city area. The tourism planning of the main town focuses on old town sightseeing and modern city tours. In order to preserve the old town as a sightseeing attraction, the plan proposes preserving the cultural relics of Songjiang and maintaining the traditional look of Songjiang old town: unique streets of houses with the river behind them. The plan suggests further harnessing the Renmin River, which runs through the old town, to make its water clear and ensure a water depth allowing the passage of tourist boats. At the same time, the plan also recommends enlarging the green spaces along the river, repairing the characteristic buildings, reproducing the original look of ancient bridges, and building old-style wharfs to form a water channel for tourism.

Both cultural relics and new urban landscapes are precious tourism resources. The plan suggests building a sightseeing area that integrates the construction of the administrative center, cultural center, Songjiang University Town, central greenbelt, parks, and squares to form modern urban landscapes. Efforts will be made to develop sightseeing programs that focus on finance, trading, investment investigation, exhibition, conferences, cultural life, and urban sightseeing in the SNC main town.

Urban Awareness

Improving the urbanization of the SNC main town is one of the main targets of the plan. Specifically, the main town will develop into one with the economic scale and overall strength of medium-sized or even large cities at the end of the planned period. To this end, the plan adjusts the proportions of different industries and population scale in the main town. In 2003, the primary, secondary, and tertiary industries of Songjiang District accounted for 4.9%, 63.6%, and 31.5% respectively of its GDP. In the new plan, the development sequence of “secondary, tertiary, and primary” will continue to be followed in order to propel the strategic economic restructuring and further raise the proportion of tertiary industry.

The SNC main town will become the focus of Songjiang District in its development of the secondary industry. In recent years, the tertiary industry of the main town has been developing quickly. Tourism attained good results through the vigorous improvement of the tourism landscape and environment. SNC's rapid development of commercial facilities has further optimized its commercial distribution. At the same time, its real estate industry has realized rapid development and modern service industries, such as finance, insurance, and telecommunications, have also been greatly advanced. However, the tertiary industry of the main town is still not strong enough; the development of commerce, trading, finance, and insurance cannot keep pace with urban development, and a commercial and financial center matching the urban scale has not

been formed yet. Developing tertiary industry to keep pace with the development of the city will become a major task for the SNC main town in the new plan period.

The plan also restructures the land use for the main town. The area and proportion of land for public facilities have increased by some degree, with a considerable drop in the area and proportion of administrative and office land, and a slight drop in the land use for education and scientific research. For instance, in 2003 the land for commercial and financial use and cultural and entertainment use in the main town were 156.5 ha and 14.2 ha respectively, accounting for 2.31% and 0.22% respectively of the total land use. According to the plan, the land use of the above two items will increase to 309.65 ha and 41.76 ha respectively, accounting for 5.09% and 0.69%respectively of the total.

During the plan period, the population of the main town will increase considerably in line with the development of future industries in Songjiang District, easing the population pressure on Shanghai's central city area. The plan predicts the future population of Songjiang main town by analyzing past population changes in Songjiang, considering the requirements of urban economic development, the capacity of the environment, and in particular the nature of the main town. Through comprehensive analysis, the plan expects to ensure the population increase can meet the needs of city development without affecting the overall environment and living quality of the city.

The regional distribution method considers the scale of the SNC main town from the perspective of regional industrial restructuring, the continual rural urbanization, and the main town used for dispersing the population of the city central area. To attain this goal, Songjiang District will further increase its development pace and urbanization level in the following 20 years. It is estimated in the plan that the district's urbanization level will reach 95% and the population will concentrate mostly in the SNC main town at the end of 2020. At the end of 2003, the main town's population accounted for 49% of the total of Songjiang District. Along with the expansion of the main town, and its economic and urban development, its population growth will far surpass that of the whole of Songjiang District. It is predicted that the population of the main town at the end of the plan period will account for 50% to 55% of the district's total. According to the plan, the population of Songjiang District will reach 1.15 million, and that of the SNC main town 570,000–630,000 at the end of the plan period.

The comprehensive leverage method can be used to predict the population of the main town from the perspective of population changes in Songjiang over the past few years. Due to administrative division adjustment in Songjiang District and the shortage of direct data on the main town, an analysis of the population changes in the former Songjiang Town (which makes up the largest part of the main town's current population) has to be taken as a basis for predicting the main town's population development tendency. From 1995 to 2000, the annual population growth rate of Songjiang Town was around 2.7%. Based on this, it is estimated that the average population growth rate in the following ten years will be 3.7% and the population of the main town will reach 380,000 at the end of the plan period.

From 2000 to 2003, the many of construction projects underway enabled the main town's population to soar at an average rate of 6.3%. What is more, along with the development of Songjiang Industrial Park and Songjiang High-tech Park, the mechanical population growth rate of the main town, which provides residential support to the two parks, will be further raised. After considering the above factors, the plan defines the near-term, mid-term, and long-term mechanical growth rates as 4.5%, 4.5%, and 4.2% respectively. The estimated population size of different periods is illustrated in Table 6.1.

The SNC main town is one of the higher education bases of Shanghai, and Songjiang University Town is under development and expansion. According to the estimated enrolments of all universities based in the University Town, Songjiang University Town will be able to house 80,000–100,000 teachers and students who will be counted as part of the main town's permanent population. Accordingly, the population of the main town will reach 500,000–600,000 at the end of the plan period.

Using the environmental capacity method, the population of the main town can be predicted by considering how the land for construction use limits the size of the town. Songjiang Industrial Park, one of the pilot industrial parks of Shanghai, and Songjiang High-tech Park in the east and west, restrict the main town's eastward and westward development. The town's south boundary is Shanghai-Hangzhou railway. In order to prevent the city from being separated by railways and reduce the influence on the modern agricultural park in the south, the main town should not develop southward across the railway. The core area of Sheshan National Holiday Resort is in the north. In order to preserve the ecological environment and improve the quality of the resort, the plan defines the area between Shenzhuan Highway and Huachen Highway south of the core area of the resort as an ecological construction area, restricting construction on land south of Huachen Highway in the main town. This way, about 60 square kilometers of land in the main town (excluding the navigable river channel) can be allocated for urban construction. According to the land use standard of 90–20 square meters per capita, the main town can hold 500,000–660,000 people. After a comprehensive analysis of the factors influencing population change, the plan predicts the main town's permanent population will reach 580,000–600,000 in 2020.

Environmental Awareness

The plan also attaches importance to the environment. Building a favorable environment in the main town can attract population inflow, since the SNC main town is the central town of Songjiang District, the main residential area for the district's population, and also the main destination for the redundant population of Shanghai. The plan also proposes effectively managing the urban green spaces, and protecting and developing historical cultural traces.

The SNC main town enjoys advantageous natural conditions. In the northwest, Sheshan National Holiday Resort is located in a natural beauty spot. To the south, a modern green agricultural garden with clean water, land, and air will be built, creating an ecological environment in the main town. At present, the main town enjoys a good environment. Nevertheless, there are also many problems. For instance, public green spaces are not well distributed and there is no systematic layout; the south urban area lacks concentrated green spaces and has only a few riverside green spaces;and the quality of the green spaces in residential districts is too low. Because of this, the plan proposes a greenery distribution principle to improve the urban greening rate, creating a sound green-space system and an agreeable urban space environment by making full use of the main town's developed water system and natural river channels. To improve the urban greening rate, the green space area of the main town will be enlarged from 430.1 ha in 2003 to 14,335 ha in 2020, up from 13.74% of the urban land in 2003 to 23.58%in 2020. The planting of green spaces will follow the characteristics of the natural environment and urban development of the main town to create an orderly green-space-system structure in the form of rings, belts, and gardens.

Along with social development comes a heightened public awareness of the historical and cultural aspects of the city, indicating a rise in the quality of urban living. Songjiang tops the list of Shanghai's suburbs in terms of existing cultural relics. As its historical resources play an important part in shaping the urban environment, the plan proposes the preservation and exploitation of cultural relics. The plan for the main town targets the preservation of its historical sites of the Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties, and the early Republican period as well as its ancient blocks. The protection covers the space pattern of historical blocks, different levels of cultural relic sites, the delimitation of the scope of preservation, and the control of building height. The plan proposes individualized preservation that varies with preservation objects. At the same time, in order to ensure the implementation of cultural relic preservation, it also puts forward policy suggestions on economy, administration, and laws.

The new planning for the SNC main town is compiled in close connection with the theme of “helping Shanghai become an international metropolis” and the guidelines of “opening up, enhancing regional awareness, transforming functions, enhancing urban awareness, sustainable development, and environmental awareness.” The aim is to build the town into a well-distributed modern, prosperous, beautiful, functional, and efficient town, becoming a model for Shanghai's suburb planning.

3. Lingang New City

With a proposed land area of 300 square kilometers, Lingang New City (LNC) covers the area between the Dazhi River in the north, the A30 expressway-Nanhui District boundary in the west, and the area of planned coastline in the east. LNC's existing land area is 209 square kilometers.

LNC is an integral part of the Shanghai International Shipping Center and also a relatively independent, comprehensive coastal new city equipped with an international container deepwater pivotal port, an international airport, and a state-level modern equipment industrial park. Thanks to its harmonious development of society, economy, environment, and culture, it is becoming a dynamic city with a beautiful ecological environment. It will become another development focus of Shanghai following Pudong.

3.1 Planning Background

Shanghai decided to develop LNC after considering the development of an international shipping center and the great potential brought on by the relocation of the seaport and the airport to the southeast and the development of coastal passages, such as Pudong Railway.

3.2 Planning Review

The LNC planning began in 2002 with the strategic decision on Lingang Comprehensive Economic and Industrial Park. In order to exploit the opportunities of seaport and airport interaction, the planning and construction of the coastal passage, and the development of modern manufacturing industry, the earlier plan aimed to give further play to the magnet-and-beacon effect of the development and opening of Pudong. It also aimed to start a strategic redistribution of Shanghai's industries by virtue of the building of the Economic and Industrial Park, actively facilitate the interaction between seaport and airport, and tackle the underdeveloped southeast area of Shanghai. It came up with some technical suggestions on the site selection for different projects in the Industrial Park from the perspective of urban development pattern, road system, and municipal infrastructure. The study resulted in an overall plan based on the planned Haigang New City. The plan suggested that an overall development control area, which incorporates the planning scope of Haigang New City, should be formed. This proposal has largely shaped the subsequent planning of the administrative area of LNC. This plan also proposed a preliminary spatial layout and functional zoning, paving the way for the follow-up work.

Between May and July 2003, the Shanghai Urban Planning Bureau asked the Shanghai Planning Institute to continue the research of LNC planning and design. This plan provided an indepth study into the urban development scale, city positioning, overall planning structure, industry orientation, and major public road utilities, offering a basis for the upcoming master plan from the macroscopic and regional outlook. It collected and collated basic data on the status quo, decided on the name “Lingang,” and specified its planning scope, development positioning, industry orientation, development scale, and supporting infrastructures.

Between July and September 2003, the concept planning was completed. Between October and November 2003, the working team, made up of members of the Shanghai Planning Institute and those from (German) GMP Company, finished the draft of the master plan. The compilation of the draft submitted for approval was completed by the Municipal Planning Institute. In January 2004, Lingang New City Master Plan (2003–2020) was approved by Shanghai Municipal Government for implementation.

3.3 Key Points

LNC is a new city in the true sense of Shanghai's strategy of developing new cities in the suburbs. Basically, the LNC master plan is a strategic one. Since the basic objectives of the plan were already set earlier, the plan's difficulty lies in how to realize these objectives. To be more specific, it lies in the coordination of the status quo and objectives, the planned area and peripheral areas, planning and practical construction progress, and so on.

The planned scale, development objectives, main road system, and municipal infrastructure distribution all follow the strategic objectives. However, in actual practice, things are more difficult and almost everything should start from scratch.

3.4 Planned Scope

LNC is located in the southeast of Shanghai. Currently, its urbanization and industrialization levels are low and one-third of its land is still mudflats. Its water system, road system, and farmlands constitute a unique seawall landform. According to the master plan, the proposed land area of LNC is 300 square kilometers with the Dazhi River to its north, the A30 Expressway-Nanhui District boundary in the west, and the enclosed area of the planned coastline in the south and east.

3.5 City Positioning

According to the plan, LNC will be developed into a dynamic, comprehensive coastal new city with good functions and harmonious development of society, economy, culture, and ecological environment. As another development focus of Shanghai following Pudong, it will be built into one of the major industrial bases that focus on modern manufacturing industry, becoming an important part of the Shanghai International Shipping Center.

The proposed residential population is 830,000, including an urban population of 810,000 or an urbanization level of 97.6%.

3.6 Planning Concepts

High Standard, High Kick-off Point

The development of LNC will represent the level and style of Shanghai's urban development. LNC strives to showcase the theme of the 2010 World Expo: “Better City, Better Life.”

Overall Coordination, Optimized Development

The LNC planning area will be taken as a whole. Both the integration of the original Haigang New City, and other functional areas, and that of existing towns within the planned area will be considered.

Ecology First

LNC, located to the southeast of Shanghai's central city area, boasts rich wetland resources and a unique seawall landform. The plan keeps the ecological features of the former planning of Haigang New City, and at the same time makes use of the rich wetland resources and unique seawall landform to create large urban forest lands, which are well blended into the city forests of Shanghai.

Combining Short- and Long-term Plans and Facilitating Implementation

LNC will follow the industrial-shift tendency of international modern equipment manufacturing industry and exploit opportunities to promote its rapid development. The plan studies the development scale and objective, lays stress on the plan requirements of the construction area during the initial period, and proposes the integrated objective of current towns to guide the initial period of construction.

3.7 Planning Features

Layout of the Five Districts

The central area (main town) is a landmark area presenting the charms and vitality of the coastal city and showcasing Shanghai's level of urban development and quality urban living environment. Dishui Lake is at the region's core and the central area brings together the main city-level public service facilities and urban residential districts of LNC.

The main industrial area forms the backbone of Shanghai's modern manufacturing industrial base, being an area that emphasizes the use of land for comprehensive, ecological, and industrial purposes. It is a continuation of the central area's urban landscape. According to the plan, the main industrial area engages mostly in modern equipment industry, export-oriented processing industry, and high-tech industry, taking the axis-line areas as its developmental focus. At the same time, the land in the core section of the axis-line area is planned for education, research and development, and commercial offices. The main industrial area also includes two urban communities: Shuyuan and Wanxiang.

The comprehensive area focuses on urban ecological development and high-tech industry with the lowest development intensity, strictest environmental requirements, and optimized ecological environment. It is an important supplement to the national modern equipment industrial park, and its future development includes living facilities for LNC. The plan focuses on high-tech urban industry, education, research and development, tourism, leisure and living, and commercial services.

The heavy-duty equipment industrial district and the logistics park is an important part of the manufacturing base. It mainly focuses on secondary industry and stresses harmonious development with the coastal ecological environment. The plan covers the land designated for high-duty industry, logistics, port, wharfs, and customs. At the same time, it also includes two urban communities: Nicheng and Luchao Port area.

Lingang forest is an ecological separation area of nearly 100 square kilometers, located between the concentrated urban development areas of the four districts, including intercity transport and largescale municipal infrastructures. According to the plan, the forest is designed to form the “urban ecological core” of LNC. Together with urban forests and urban wedge-like greenbelts, it ensures the development of an ecological town with clean water and skies.

Ring and Radial Urban Development Axis-line

Three radial axis-lines from the main town area will be formed. The first is an industrial development main axis extending northwest along the B3 axis-line road. The axis is not only the main passage connecting the central town area and the main industrial district, but also an iconic main axis-line of LNC's urban functions and landscapes. The plan expects to form an auxiliary axis parallel to X2 road south of the B3 axis-line road. This way, a double-axis pattern will be formed between the central town area and the industrial district. The second radial axis-line refers to an industrial development axis extending along D2 road, which will drive the development of heavy-duty equipment industry and logistics parks. The third is the comprehensive development axis going north along B4 road, which will become the cityscape central axis of the comprehensive area.

According to the plan, F3 road (the present-day Baiyulan Avenue), Y4 road, and E5 road will form a semicircular development axis-line which incorporates the D2 road industrial development axis and B4 road comprehensive development axis to form an inner ring road of the New City. The inner ring road, which not only links the four districts but also closely connects the main urban communities with the New City, is an important interior development axis of the New City.

High-efficiency Comprehensive Corridor

As a completely new city emerging in Shanghai in the new century, LNC should demonstrate the efficiency and level of Shanghai's urban development. Based on the basic planning precepts of “being intensive and highly efficient,” the plan proposes the concept of a “comprehensive corridor.” By integrating intercity transport, major municipal pipeline corridors, main shipping passages, and ecological corridors, it will reduce the overall land-use scale of large systematic corridors, their influence upon urban space, and optimize urban spatial layout. According to the plan, three major comprehensive corridors will be formed along Lianggang Avenue, A2 Highway, and Humahe respectively.

3.8 Industries

Planned Development Objectives

• To achieve high efficiency and intensive output efficiency.
• To create a first-class environment for industrial park development that will also be an important part of the modern coastal cityscape of Lingang.
• To fully coordinate the ecological environment and social comprehensive efficiency, at the same time meeting the production requirements.
• To set up different types and scales of industrial districts according to different locations and traffic conditions.

Industry Positioning

Lingang will seek to develop a high valued-added, advanced manufacturing industry, high-tech industries, and urban industry with modern equipment manufacturing industry as the core. The preliminary framework for the planned industrial districts will be up and running in 2007, and these industrial districts will gradually be built into one of the six industrial bases in Shanghai.

3.9 Intercity Transport

The fundamental principle for intercity-transport planning in the new city is to achieve efficient connection between the new city artery network and other artery transport networks in the city region of Shanghai, including expressways, railways, city-region express railways, and inland waterways.

The plan adds an urban expressway—Lianggang Avenue—in the New City. Lingang Avenue and the intercity-expressway network form a road network. By relying on the proposed Pudong Railway, the plan gives full play to the role and advantage of railways in container-multimodal transportation. Three grades of inland rivercourse are planned. Public transport between the New City and the central city area, with the city-region express railway Line R3 as its backbone, will offer high-speed passenger transport services from the large, central-city interchange of Universal Film City to the central town area of LNC with a travel time of about one hour.

3.10 Green Space System

The New City and its districts will form a pattern of “ecological conservation shell + ecological corridor + ecological core” and a four-tier afforestation system of forest corridor, ecological green spaces (Lingang Forest), structural green spaces (urban wedge-like greenbelts), and concentrated urban green spaces.

The ecological green spaces are made up of Lingang Forest, the ecological corridor, central villages and rural settlements, largescale infrastructures, backbone water network, and cultivated lands, among others.

The structural green spaces are set where urban living districts border the suburbs. In the suburbs, they will appear as shelter forests; at the junction of urban and rural areas, they will appear as wedge-like greenbelts. Apart from the city development functions defined in the planning, the structural green spaces will focus on forest development.

The overall afforestation coverage within the planned area of the New City will exceed 50%; the afforestation coverage of the planned urban living districts will reach 40%; and that of the planned industrial districts 30%.

3.11 Water Network System

LNC is located where the Yangtze River meets Hangzhou Bay. Since the area was formed through the outward traction of mudflats and marine reclamation, the proportion of current mudflat areas and fish pond areas is very high, while that of the natural river courses is low. As a result, the planning stresses solving four problems: city flood prevention, coordination of internal and external water networks in the urban living districts, coordination between the planned water network and the current water network, and the environmental water quality of the internal water network in the urban living district.

3.12 Landscape and Intensity Control

With GMP from Germany as the key planner, the planning team has conducted in-depth urban design on the main landscape axis-lines and important landscape nodes, which strengthens the creation of urban landscapes, defines the urban space framework, and forms multi-layered cityscapes. To guide regional development from an overall perspective, the planning divides LNC into five districts by the level of development intensity and proposes control requirements for landmark buildings. On the whole, LNC will focus on medium- and low-intensity development.

4. Jiading Anting New Town

In the 21st century, along with the gradual shift of Shanghai's urban development focus from the urban area to the suburbs, the urbanization of Shanghai's suburbs will be accelerated.

In line with the suburban development of an international metropolis, Shanghai will stress the development of Jiading, Lingang, and Songjiang during the Tenth Five-Year Plan. Anting Town is one of the three clusters of Jiading New City. It is positioned as an automotive industry base in the west and will become the “Shanghai International Auto City.” Because of this, Shanghai Municipal Government established a Construction Leading Group to guide and coordinate the important planning and development projects of the Auto City.

At the end of 2000, relevant departments engaged some world renowned planning and design firms to carry out the concept planning to ensure high-standard planning and development for Shanghai International Auto City. Based on the conceptual scheme from Germany's AS&P, and taking into consideration China's actual conditions and technical specification requirements, Shanghai Jiading Planning and Design Institute compiled Anting—Structural Planning of Shanghai International Auto City (Auto City Structural Planning) on May 2001, which was later approved by the Municipal Government.

Shanghai International Auto City (including a Formula 1 Race Track) covers an area of 68 square kilometers. By 2020, its resident population will reach 150,000. It has eight functional zones: production- support zone, manufacturing zone, Anting old town zone, the Auto City core zone, Anting New Town zone, education park zone, living and development spare zone, and Formula 1 International Race Track. Anting New Town area is a living area with German characteristics and styles, covering an area of four square kilometers with a planned population of 40,000.

4.1 Planning Organization, Compilation, and Formation

Organization

In order to better develop the Auto City, the Municipal Government and district-level government have both made great efforts to develop the living area of Anting New Town while developing the production-support zone, the Auto City core zone, and the Formula 1 International Race Track. Based on the structural planning of the Auto City, Anting New Town zone is divided into two districts for the convenience of construction: west district (Phase I) and east district (Phase II).

According to the structural planning for the Auto City, the Planning Bureau of Jiading District engaged AS&P and Jiading Planning and Design Institute to co-compile the regulatory plan for Anting New Town.

Compilation

The compilation of the whole plan is divided into two phases:

Phase I : AS&P compiles “detailed planning design scheme.” Jiading Planning and Design Institute takes part in the scheme discussion to ensure the scheme is able to guide the regulatory plan.

Phase II : Jiading Planning and Design Institute compiles the “regulatory plan” with AS&P as a consultant. As for the overall style, the plan adopts the German style presented in the detailed planning design scheme drawn up by AS&P. In terms of capacity and index control, the plan refers to relevant standards of China for residential districts. The regulatory plan specifies and refines the detailed planning scheme prepared by AS&P.

4.2 Planning Results

Planning Objective Analysis

Jiading Planning and Design Institute began the compilation of the regulatory plan of Anting New Town based on the overall design scheme prepared by AS&P. The regulatory plan differs from former regulatory plans. A unique town style cannot be achieved merely by defining its nature and size. Therefore, the key of the regulatory plan lies in how to ensure the concept of the German style of Anting New Town to be successfully realized in Shanghai by effectively controlling the construction capacity. The following regulatory plan objectives are formulated through an in-depth comparative study and analysis of the key problems.

First: Reasonable construction capacity indexes (plot ratio, building density, greening rate, population capacity, parking lots, etc.) are defined to ensure the intensive development and utilization of land, high-quality living environment, and the quality of living in Anting New Town.

Second: To ensure that the New Town is equipped with a relatively independent public service facility system and reasonable spatial layout structure, and that high-quality public facilities for education, culture and entertainment, sports, and commercial offices are well distributed in the New Town.

Third: To build the New Town with German style through the control of the regulatory plan. The key point and difficulty of the regulatory plan compilation lie in the illustration of design style and planning pattern with quantified indexes. The quantified indexes and guidelines are prepared not only to reflect the capacity control and standards, but also to provide technical support to the regulatory plan. These indexes and guidelines are quantified index intervals, controlling guidelines subdivided into various controlling elements, or more visual plot control drawings.

The planner believes that the compilation of the regulatory plan will be combined with the urban design through the definition and analysis of planning objectives. Therefore, guidance and control on urban design are conducted during the compilation of the regulatory plan in the east zone of the New Town to ensure the realization of the “German style” in Anting New Town.

Planning Method and Level

The culture of the New Town lies in its German- and European style community life, reflected in the structural layout, greenspace landscape system, public space, architecture, urban interface, and parking mode. The regulatory plan first proposes regulatory requirements on the following aspects from a macroscopic view.

The quantified indexes establish a quantifying balance point or base point to ensure the realization of the unique style based on the scheme design. At the same time, drawings and guidelines are attached, ensuring the detailed plan, schemes, or urban design are prepared under the guidance of the regulatory plan and illustrating the planning concepts in terms of urban morphology, structural layout, and urban intention.

In addition, the actual conditions should also be studied and different plots call for different control elements and indexes

4.3 Planning Studies

Unique Style Studies

German style is the most important feature of Anting New Town. The planning and design of the New Town inherits the mature town mode of Weimar, a European capital of culture.

Given the particulars of Anting, “modernist architecture with classical flavors” is established as the overall style on the basis of the above comparison. Here, classical flavors refer to the fact that the town scale and layout, road system, and architectural modules should be presented in the classical design language of a medieval European town, such as moat, forest belts around the city, squares,

and smooth and rhythmical skylines. As for specific building styles, the Bauhaus design elements are applied and adapted. Besides this, the plan advocates a concise style that seeks ecological development of residences. During the planning of the New Town's east zone, the concept of “garden city” is employed. To meet the development requirements, the plan substitutes the old design language of “garden city” with modern techniques to create an ever-new classical feel.

Layout Structure

Covering an area of nearly four square kilometers, Anting New Town is endowed with spacious green belts and is divided by the central green belt into the west and east zones. Sports facilities are planned at the junction of the east and west zones. Zhangxin Lake is also part of this junction. The two zones are functionally complementary to each other. The overall structure of the New Town is like a multinucleate mass. The spacious green spaces and waters are cytoplasm, the east zone and the west zone are the nuclei, Zhangxin Lake and the central green belts are important genetic matters. On the one hand, the east and west zones are closely related to each other, and on the other, they are two independent zones.

The east and west zones are endowed with the traditional German town style: irregular streets interspersed by squares, and residences in varied styles. The two zones focus on different structures. Like many typical German cities, the west zone is designed to have a mixed square exuding strong medieval flavors at its geometrical center, and the churches, hotels, shopping centers, and theaters surrounding the square form a town center and public activities center. The relative concentration of buildings and green spaces arising from multi-layered enclosures enables efficient utilization of infrastructures and good-neighborly relations. At the same time, the west zone inherits medieval enclosure in spatial structure, forming three layers of enclosure: outlying roads, Wusong River, the moat and individual buildings.

The east zone stresses the characteristic of “garden city,” offering various leisure and commercial facilities in a garden-like environment. Its overall layout is a finger-like radial pattern extending in the north from the public building groups and Zhangxin Lake to the south. The Zhangxin Lake and public building groups are the focus of space configuration and urban community activities in the east zone. The finger-like spatial structure is a new, garden-like, urban-community structure with ecological green belts and housing clusters. There are two public building centers in the east zone. Between these two centers stands a leisure and commercial indoor street that becomes the axis of the finger-like radial structure.

Residence Planning

Residence Layout: The planning of the residential land in the New Town embodies the design concept of “people-centered and sustainable development” and strives to build high-quality, new-type residences with a favorable environment and rich regional styles.

In general, the new town's houses are arranged along the roads, with the west-zone residences mainly distributed within the area encircled by the ring road. Residences in the east zone take on the layout of their surroundings. The most obvious point is that Class I and Class II residences form several housing clusters; however, most Class III residences are distributed in a linear manner along the open spaces. It is evident that the east zone planning puts more stress on the exterior space.

The interior housing layout also varies from the east to west zones. The west zone's housing follows an enclosure pattern consisting of blocks and central courts. This not only creates a rich homestead atmosphere for future residents, but also improves the land-use rate.

Housing Type : Mixed housing is one of the ten principles proposed by new urbanism, i.e., building diverse residences of various prices in close proximity. Focusing on the concept of transparent residence, Anting New Town offers various housing types, such as villas, town houses, semi-detached houses, apartment buildings, lofts, waterside houses, and so on. In particular, covered walkways are featured in many buildings along the street, demonstrating a people-friendly design and German style.

Road Transport System

Road System: One of the main characteristics of the free-growing cities in medieval Europe is their irregular road system: there is no clear distinction between main streets and secondary streets. Squares are closely connected with neighboring roads. The road system usually takes on a diverging structure from the city square with most of the streets zigzagging.

The road system of Anting New Town follows closely that of the free-growing medieval European towns. The road is made up of two parts, the traffic road and the pedestrian sidewalk. The main road network of the New Town is composed of irregular, annular networks. The east-west Anzhi Road is an important entrance to and exit from the town. The annular road network reproduces the city wall of a medieval European town. Because of the inward layout, the road network in the west zone takes on the feature of annular roads cutting through roads shaped like the Chinese character (jing), forming a windmill-like pattern. This layout balances the area proportions of the eight main regions inside the ring.

Irregular, winding roads can effectively relieve visual fatigue, and at the same time the T-shaped junctions can effectively discourage speeding. The roads meander through landscapes, providing changing street scenes. For the most part, they are arterial roads 28–40 meters wide, leading to and from expressways, effectively controlling the vehicle speed, and ensuring the safety of pedestrians.

The characteristics of the free-growing cities cannot be seen in the roads inside the residential district, whose main function is to meet the requirements of sensory aesthetics, such as people's feelings toward spaces, perception towards building morphology, and participation in space activity. In this kind of road network, straight-lined corridors are dominant.

Static Traffic : Anting New Town makes significant improvements in the variety of parking options and standards, compared to those of common residential districts. Firstly, there are various types of car parks, such as ground level or surface, semi-underground, underground, and multi-story parking lots (in the east zone of the New Town). Semi-underground car parks add a landscape layer by creating undulations. In the east zone of the New Town, multi-story parking lots are planned. Secondly, in the planning, the parking standards are elevated. There is one parking space per household, higher than that of Shanghai where the average is 0.72 car per household. In addition, based on trial research on parking and the visual landscapes of motor vehicle traffic routes, the concept of “comprehensive parking lot” in time dimension is adopted in the planning, ensuring the greatest efficiency of parking lots.

Public Spaces, Roads, and Squares

Public space is the main objective of urban design. The public activity spaces of Anting New Town are formed by interweaving squares, streets, and large public buildings in a systematic spatial sequence. The planning maintains the continuity and integrity of spatial sequence in pursuit of walking space and the integration of all blocks. Zhangxin Lake is both the most important public open space in the New Town and the starting point of the public space sequence in the east zone. The central pedestrian street forms a linear space extending to the sub-center of the annular road in the south side. The west zone is a spatial sequence encircling the central square. Besides this, the green belts are also important means for the formation of wide-open spaces.

Streets are the most public open space, and in particular the pedestrian streets are an important part of urban open spaces and a great contributor to commercial activities. Multi-functional community public-service facilities are planned along the central pedestrian street in Anting New Town's east zone, which offers diversified spaces and creates a vibrant atmosphere to attract people. According to the planning, both sides of pedestrian streets will be consistent, with enclosure space and open space alternating, making them more interesting for walkers and promoting the appeal of walking within the city.

Control of Construction Capacity

The proposed land area of Anting New Town is 3.9 square kilometers, with the east zone accounting for 146 ha and the west zone 243 ha. In order to ensure a high-quality living environment and standard of living, Anting New Town is defined as a low-density, medium- to top-grade living community in a distinctive German style. The relevant indexes are as follows:

Advanced Technical Measures

Anting New Town is not a real estate project in its traditional sense, but a project with relatively ideal functions and structures. The advanced technologies employed are beyond the reach of any ordinary construction project. Firstly, Anting New Town is the only town that incorporates standards and systems for preventing infectious disease into architectural planning. Secondly, the common trench system covering the whole of Anting New Town is also the initial attempt made in the new town development of Shanghai's suburbs. It greatly upgrades the infrastructure development of the new town and avoids disturbance to public transport and people's daily life caused by the laying and maintaining of underground pipelines and the dredging of roads. Thirdly, Anting New Town applies ventilated designs, special heat-insulating materials, and a central energy-supply system, greatly reducing utility expenses. Soundproof and shockproof floor slabs, together with good plumbing systems, reduce disturbances from neighbors and ensure privacy. Besides this, Anting New Town is also equipped with many advanced technological products, such as an intelligent system with the integration of three networks.

Summary of Planning Experience

The planning compilation for and the development of the east and the west zones of Anting New Town are carried out separately. The regulatory plan of the west zone was approved and put into practice on December 26, 2002. The development and construction of the west zone would be completed by the end of 2005.

After three years of development and construction, Anting New Town has finally made an appearance. The town, with its rich medieval German style, brings in advanced technologies, materials, and concepts from Europe, greatly promoting its development.

Organization of Planning Compilation : The organization and implementation control of planning compilation are especially important to urban planning projects which solicit international design schemes. The solicitation is a process to broaden thinking and accumulate intelligence. Foreign planning designers are not allowed to compile urban planning in China. Therefore, the participation of qualified local planners is inevitable. These local planers are the main compilers of the final scheme for approval.

Planning Scope : Generally speaking, the compilation of urban planning is conducted within a specified scope; however, the scope will not restrict regional development. Regional development should be taken into full consideration in the urban planning. The collection of structural planning schemes for Auto City and the planned scope of the Auto City did not include the current Anting New Town to begin with due to the administrative boundary of Jiading District. After in-depth research, the Municipal Government incorporated Anting under the planning scope of Shanghai International Auto City. To ensure the smooth and thorough implementation of the urban planning, the administrative division was adjusted in recognition of the integrity and scientific nature of the planning compilation and research.

Project Planning and Driving Force (Government Urban Management Behavior and Roles of Developers) : In China's planning compilation system, the regulatory plan is both an operational planning document, which will be directly used to guide plot development, and a direct command in planning management when a piece of land goes to market development. Site plan and design scheme will follow the regulatory plan. However, at present, the regulatory plan is compiled under the guidance of the government. Developers (or investors) do not have an active role to play in the process, or sometimes only one developer is involved. This will result in unnecessary adjustment in the later stages of planning. In terms of urban operation, the government acts as the main body and direct administrator, and developers are the specific implementers. Undoubtedly there is a complicated relationship between the two.

How to coordinate the relationship between planning compilation and market development is especially important to the planning compilation for key development regions with special control requirements. Market research prior to the proposal of planning control parameters is more important in that it can avoid or reduce frequent adjustments to the planning. At this stage, due to the lack of developer participation, conflicts of interest between the government and developers or inaccurate market positioning are likely to occur. Therefore, developers should be involved in urban management so that they can work together with the government for the best management and the smooth progress of the project. It is an issue worth in-depth study on the part of city planners and administrators.

Problems Arising in the Compilation of Regulatory Plan

Planning Flexibility: Effective control of land is an issue that needs to be properly addressed in the planning, along with the issue of leaving room for the compilation and scheme design of site plans during the compilation of the regulatory plan. In the regulatory plan for the west zone, over-detailed division of block plots, because of sight control, affected the construction schedule. In view of this, when compiling the regulatory plan of the east zone, control requirements are only restricted to the overall building quantity and sight control, while the control of the roads inside the blocks is relaxed so as to allow more in-depth design at the next stage.

Foreign Concepts and Localization : Anting New Town is planned with free-growing medieval European towns as its model. Cultural differences between the East and the West have resulted in a gap between west- or east-facing houses and the local housing demands and affected the actual sales. Though this issue can be solved technically during development, residence facing depends, in the final analysis, on geographical location and local living habits. This was taken into full account in the planning of the east zone. The proportion of west- or east-facing houses was strictly controlled.

Characteristic Sights and Current Specifications : Placing buildings close to the red line of roads and the estuary line, and reducing building intervals to create an intense sense of enclosure, are all important factors in realizing a German building style. However, these do not conform to the current regulations on planning management and technical standards in Shanghai. The regulatory plan of Anting New Town loosened the requirements on the building set-back line and building intervals, making it possible to achieve the German style. This requires the planners and relevant administrative departments to weigh the pros and cons before making a reasonable decision.

Project Implementation and Stage Control : The development of the west zone of Anting New Town is directly based on the regulatory plan and the building scheme design, bypassing the site planning. This has led to adjustments and revisions of the plan in practical implementation, an indicator of development and management disjointed from each other. Therefore, the management departments need to consider whether unconventional management methods should be adopted toward the planning and development of special projects.