CHENG Mingwang

Han Zheng, the Communist Party Secretary of Shanghai, once put forward that we should build Shanghai into “a global city that is both desirable and excellent”. He further described this vision that “such a city would have buildings to read, streets to stroll, and warmth to all”. Inspired by the metropolises in developed countries, I would like to share a few thoughts from the perspective of urban economics.

First of all, a wonderful city should be prosperous and energetic. Since the industrial revolution, the history of modern civilization has been full of bursting of wealth and booming of cities. As Theodore Parker put it, “cities have always been the fireplace of civilization, whence light and heat radiated out into the dark”. Such light and heat, as material and spiritual wealth, has been attracting people to cities. People gather in cities, enhancing the production efficiency by the division of labor, bringing their comparative advantages to the play due to trade activities and generating great ideas through cultural collision. The material basis and necessary conditions for the existence of cities are the optimal allocation of resources resulted from an agglomeration economy, the cost advantage provided by the economy of scale as well as the improvement of human capital’s quality thanks to the learning effect. As we have stepped into the post-industrial era, the competitions have become increasingly fierce between enterprises, industries and cities, which makes innovation a key to prosperity for a city. Hence, for Shanghai, building a city of innovation and stimulating its vitality is among the core strategies to maintain its status as the economic center of China, and maybe someday, of the world.

What’s more, a wonderful city is an inclusive and warm one. The creation of material wealth is a path full of sweat, exhaustion, competition and conflict. The rapid development of China’s economy has generated indifference in the forest of high-rising buildings, and loneliness in the heavy traffic on the roads. Indeed, a wonderful city is not only a wealthy and prosperous one, but also one about poetry and the future. Poetry shows the pursuit of excellence and freedom while the future is where dreams and hopes lie. Only by being inclusive, generous, unprejudiced, compassionate can a city radiate warmth. As the economic center of China, Shanghai is by no means exclusive for Shanghainese. As China’s economy continues to grow and its international status continues to improve, the day will soon come when Shanghai becomes the world’s economic center and thus a part of the optimal allocation of global resources. The competition between cities will be a cultural one. The culture of Shanghai should be an integration of traditional thinking from China and the spirit of humanity form modern Western civilization. At the height of modern society, this culture should be full of respect for human nature, long of science, insistence of honesty and pursuit of excellence. It is the humanity that makes the great city more inclusive and warm.

Finally, a wonderful city has to be eco-friendly and sustainable. The ultimate purpose of a city is to improve the quality of life for citizens and a good quality of life is dependent on the peace and serene brought by the greenery, birds and flowers. For Chinese people, agriculture and pastorali are representatives of greenness and symbols of calmness and detachment. When it comes to the international trend, being an eco-city is a significant direction of development for cosmopolitan cities, and the competition among which will no longer be restricted to industries or the heights of buildings, but rather focused on habitability, ecology, exquisiteness and sustainability. In developed countries, especially those small towns, you can see flocks of Canada goose in winter, beautiful fireflies in summer, naughty squirrels on the tree, marmots sneaking in your backyard and deer showing up in the streets surprisingly…all signs of harmony between man and nature. The world is flat, cities are not. In the context of continuing population influx, Shanghai should avoid the path of unordered expansion, and develop the city vertically while leaving horizontal space for greenery. It is suggested to increase the floor air ratio of urban population while making some room for the construction of an ecological environment manifesting the harmony between man and nature. As for citizens, a mode of production and living style featuring eco-friendly, low carbon and healthy is encouraged in order for Shanghai to build an eco-city.