School of Economics and Management, Tongji University

Recently, Professor Zhu Dajian of the Department of Public Administration at our school, published an article about Shanghai’s five new towns on Shanghai Observer, the client side of Jiefang Daily. He proposed that the five new towns should make efforts in such four aspects as urban development strategy, integration of “industries, cities and people”, rail transit network, and institutional innovation and governance. The following is the original article published.

The outline of the 14th Five-Year Plan of Shanghai clearly proposes to accelerate the formation of a new spatial pattern of “radiation from the center, flying with two wings, strength exertion by the new towns and transformation between the North and the South”. “Strength exertion by the new towns” refers to the building of five new towns, which are respectively Jiading, Songjiang, Qingpu, Fengxian and Nanhui. In my opinion, “strength exertion by the new towns” is a strategic subject for Shanghai to develop and shape new space in the 21st century. For Shanghai, the construction of new towns is not a new thing in itself, and what is new is to exert its strength at a new height. So, what is the new height? How can the strength be exerted? In today’s speech, I will share with you some of my ideas about this.

Strength Exertion by the New Towns Requires Improvement in the Urban Development Strategy

Over the past four decades of reform and opening-up, only 1/6 area of Shanghai has been especially favored by resources and policies. The area previously covered over 600 square kilometers of the central urban area within the outer ring road, and was then expanded to cover Hongqiao, Minhang, Baoshan and Chuansha. This forms the Shanghai’s downtown area as set out in the Shanghai Master Plan 2035, covering about 1,191 square kilometers. All the surrounding cities in the Yangtze River Delta, including big cities like Nanjing and Hangzhou, or small cities like Kunshan and Jiashan, should be connected with the center of Shanghai, rather than with the suburban new towns. Now, to construct the five new towns is to change from strength exertion from a single central urban area to a networking and multi-center strength exertion by “1 center + 5 new towns”. The economic radiation has been expanded from previously the central city covering more than 1,000 square kilometers to city clusters covering more than several thousand square kilometers.

To talk about the issue concerning strength exertion by the new towns, we should first define positioning of the five new towns. The five new towns are currently positioned as independent, comprehensive node cities. In fact, the positioning of “independence” and “comprehensiveness” has been put forward in the Shanghai Master Plan 2001, which was specified as “building an independent, medium-sized city with a certain distance from the central city and with functions as industry, residence, services and cultural facilities, so as to remove the non-core urban functions of the central city”. The Plan pointed out that the difference between a new city and a satellite city lied in the closeness and relative independence of the parent city, and the satellite city was a relatively single functional unit of the parent city, while as for a new city, the comprehensive and relative independence of its functions were emphasized. From this point of view, the key to the “strength exertion by the new towns” should be on the “node”. The node cities undertake external rather than internal functions. Therefore, it’s natural that node cities should be quite independent and comprehensive.

Strength exertion by new towns signifies that the development of Shanghai urban space has really started from polarized development of the central city to collective development of the metropolis circle. A node city is the function of development axis where a new city is on and the new city’s competitiveness in itself. Strength exertion by new towns needs to be carried out in the above two aspects. For the five new towns, some have the advantages of development axis, but need to strengthen their node city functions; some have certain urban economic functions but have not formed a development axis of external strength exertion; some need to be strengthened in both the external development axis and their competitiveness.

The change from the 11 new towns in the Shanghai Master Plan 2001 to the current 5 new towns is made out of the consideration that the new towns should play a role in the external development axis of Shanghai. For example, Jiading is mainly on the Shanghai-Nanjing Railway, and in the future, a new development axis will be formed in the direction to Nantong; Qingpu mainly directs to Huzhou; Songjiang mainly directs to Hangzhou; Fengxian mainly directs to Hangzhou Bay in the south of Shanghai; and Nanhui will place its priority on Zhoushan and Ningbo. Every node city on the development axis should play a role of coordinator and growth pole, facilitating the development of its surrounding cities in the Yangtze River Delta. Therefore, in terms of the development strategies and urban planning, new towns should not only focus on themselves, but make new urban planning with regional linkage. The layout of industry, transportation, education, medical care, culture, ecology and other functions within the scope of the new towns should not be “self-entertained”. It is necessary to think about what kind of services the new towns can provide for the cities near Shanghai, Yangtze River Delta urban cluster and even wider scope, not just whether their population and development can be met.

Strength Exertion by the New Towns Requires Better Integration of “Industries, Cities and People”

Competitiveness of the new towns involves the coordination and integration of industries, population and cities. According to the objectives set forth in relevant documents, by 2025, the total permanent population of the five new towns will have reached about 3.6 million and the total GDP of the new towns will have reached 1.1 trillion, which means that 20% of the construction land in Shanghai will be used to absorb 15% of the permanent population and generate about 25% of the GDP. The development significance behind these figures is to build the five new towns into high-energy new towns in the Shanghai metropolis circle with the integration of “industries, cities and people”.

In terms of industry, the five new towns differ in industrial priority, and are required to play their different external roles in Shanghai metropolis circle. An important practical and theoretical question is whether the five new towns have global urban functions in some aspects. According to the traditional global urban theory, financial and trade functions in the form of headquarters should generally be concentrated in the CBDs (central business districts) and metropolis circles of global cities. However, according to the traditional global urban theory in recent years, function of global cities should be a complex of trade, finance and information technology, which is consistent with the fourth industrial revolution. The spatial distribution of the dominant industry may occur in a broader global urban area. If such development is the general trend, then the five new towns will need to have further strategies and plans in the characteristic functions, and lay out high-end productive services and living services in addition to characteristic manufacturing.

In terms of population, it is worth discussing where the population increase in the development of new towns mainly derives from. Some argue that the increase in population in new towns should derive from decentralization of the main urban area. However, based on the achievements of the old area transformation in the past two decades, the population flow from the main urban area to the suburban new towns has remained relatively stable. Some people believe that the increase in population in the new towns derives from the urbanization of local rural population. But Shanghai is characterized by high urbanization rate, and most local rural people have moved to the cities. Others believe that in order to increase population, it is necessary for the new towns to open up unconditionally. But the total cost of moving to towns cannot be reduced unconditionally in Shanghai, and there will be no great potential for growth in this aspect. In my opinion, the source of population growth in the new towns should be mainly from the fresh graduates of universities in Shanghai and other cities in China. To exert strength, The new towns should utilize their own industrial development and layout, absorb more fresh graduates and the population of ecological significance, and study the compatibility between the university disciplines and industrial development in the new towns.

In terms of cities, it is generally emphasized that the development of new towns requires elevation of public services to the level of the main urban area or even higher, which is certainly the key issue for the integration of “industries, cities and people”. However, some people believe that to improve the energy level in this area is to transfer and transport some high-energy medical and educational resources in the central urban area to node cities. I have different views on this. It’s certain that at the beginning the new towns need support from the main urban area. However, if they always rely on the main urban area, and expect the resource space transfer, it is actually a transfer from the left pocket to the right pocket, resulting in the dilution of the total quantity of resources in Shanghai, which makes it difficult to enhance the overall competitiveness of Shanghai.

Only by strengthening the endogenous function can the five new towns develop in the real sense. To study the development of the new towns, we may learn from a story on Pudong’s development before. At the beginning of development in Pudong New District, a foreign businessman asked Zhao Qizheng (the first director of Pudong New District Management Committee), if I get sick, should I be treated in Pudong or should I go to Puxi across the Huangpu River? This challenging question urged Zhao Qizheng to decide that Pudong must have a first-class hospital at grade 3 of its own, as well as advanced medical facilities and high-level talents. Now, the famous East Hospital, a first-class hospital at grade 3 in Pudong, was thereby established. Today, when discussing strength exertion by the new towns, we should also raise such a question.

From the above example, it can be shown that the main challenge for the five new towns is to cultivate their own independent competitiveness, which is not dependent on the main urban area, but the incremental development of the new towns. The five new towns should have wise policies and methods to attract population and talents at home and abroad. The three key words of strength exertion by the new towns are independence, comprehensiveness and node, which can be summed up vividly: if one day, the tide-like commuter population between the new towns and the main urban area falls, then “independence” could be deemed as being achieved; if people in the new towns don’t need to study in the main urban area, and can be treated locally, then “comprehensiveness” could be deemed as being achieved; if people in the cities near Shanghai and the peripheral areas come to the new towns to find jobs, buy houses, see doctors, study and even for leisure and entertainment, then “node” could be deemed as being achieved.

Strength Exertion by the New Towns Requires Rail Transit Network

Seen from spatial form, the transformation from central urban area to metropolis circle is a process of transformation from concentric circle spatial form to palm-shaped spatial form. It is also necessary for Shanghai to transform from the main urban area to the “1 + 5” municipal metropolis circle. Generally speaking, the central urban area develops into a concentric circle, with the around-city highway and subway network playing a major role; while the transformation from the central urban area to the metropolitan area requires a radial spatial form to be shaped by the outward expressway and rail transit.

China’s urbanization is a new type of urbanization with late-mover advantage driven by rail transit network. The development of rail transit needs to form four networks from small to large scale: the first is the subway network in the central urban areas of large cities, the second is the urban or suburban railway network in the metropolis circles, the third is the intercity railway network in the urban clusters, and the fourth is the national high-speed rail network between urban clusters from Shanghai to Beijing, Shanghai to Guangzhou and Shanghai to Chengdu. Over the past three decades, Shanghai, a mega city, has developed its central urban area, and its mode of transportation is mainly based on the vigorous development of the subway network. But this model is problematic when applied to the new towns on a large scale. On the one hand, subway lines are getting longer and longer, reducing the efficiency and effect of subways as a public transportation mode in the main urban area; on the other hand, the new towns will be hindered from becoming independent node cities if they are driven by subways during the development, so the new towns often become the terminals rather than the nodes on the traffic axis. As a result, people in the new towns are willing to go to the central urban area, while people in the central urban area aren’t willing to go to the new towns.

If we consider the construction of a subway network of several hundred kilometers in the past as a transportation reform and driving force for the development of the main urban area in Shanghai, then the construction of suburban railway networks of several hundred kilometers in the future will be another transportation reform and driving force for the development of Shanghai metropolis circle. There can be three strategic thoughts on the relationship between the strength exertion by the five new towns and the suburban railway networks: first, strengthen the connection with the international transportation hubs, especially with the Hongqiao International Hub; second, strengthen the external connection with the cities near Shanghai, including the construction of Jiading-Qingpu-Songjiang-Jinshan municipal line on the west side of Shanghai, as well as connection with Taicang to the north, and with Pinghu to the south; third, build stations on the urban railways in the new towns as far as possible. From the beginning, the integration between stations and cities should be considered strategically, and the urban development should be guided by the construction of public transportation hubs around the stations.

“Grand Hongqiao” is positioned as the CBD and polar center of the whole city cluster in the Yangtze River Delta. The strategic significance of “Grand Hongqiao” lies in that it is a strategic link of international and domestic double circulation, with such functions as big transportation, big exhibition and big business. The “Grand Hongqiao” is at national and international level. The five new towns should undoubtedly connect with it so that they can be driven and at the same time drive the development of its surrounding areas. One of the most fundamental approaches is to use intercity and municipal railways to connect the five new towns with “Grand Hongqiao” at one end and with Jiangsu and Zhejiang in the metropolis circle at the other end. As a node city, each new town needs to have a two-way transmission function in the transportation network and development axis. For example, Jiading New Town needs to be externally connected to Taicang, Qingpu New Town to Wujiang, Songjiang New Town to Jiashan, and Fengxian New Town to Pinghu through Jinshan. To closely connect the five new towns and “Grand Hongqiao”, transportation network and other links of infrastructure should be utilized to guide the expansion and extension of specific functions in terms of economy, society, etc.

The target population of the five new towns by 2035 is 1 million respectively, signifying that each will have more than 100 square kilometers of construction land within Shanghai inner ring road. Therefore, it is necessary to break the thought of layered development in a single center and form a multi-center space group integrating several industries and cities. Subways, municipal railways and urban railways should be brought in as far as possible. It is necessary to build a city group integrating stations and cities based on TOD (public transportation oriented development) around rail transit stations at different energy levels. Starting from the most basic spatial framework, the problems of separation between industries and cities and that between occupations and residences should be solved, so as to realize the urban transformation into the integration between industries and cities and the balance between occupations and residences.

Strength Exertion by the Five New Towns Requires Institutional Innovation and Governance

Last, I would like to talk about governance of the new towns. Regulation is the top-down hierarchical management of a single organization, while governance requires the joint efforts of both formal and informal organizations. To discuss the efficient governance of the five new towns, I think we can make an extension on the “Wang Daohan’s question” on regional linkage and coordinated development. Someone once explained “Questioning by Wang Daohan”, saying that in regional development, each city has its own mechanism and vitality, but they are in homogeneous competition with each other, resulting in the problem of “1 + 1 < 2” on the whole. A cross-regional metropolis circle is going to be built in Shanghai, with the five new towns within the scope of Shanghai, while Wujiang, Kunshan, Taicang and Jiashan are cities in Jiangsu Province and Zhejiang Province outside the administrative divisions of Shanghai. To discuss the governance challenge in the sense of metropolis circle is to study how the traditional administrative area economy based on vertical regulation becomes the metropolis circle economy based on cooperative governance. In my opinion, to make an extension on the “Questioning by Wang Daohan” to study the issue about efficient governance for the development of Shanghai metropolis circle, we need to face up to the issues both outside and inside Shanghai.

The key to the efficient governance outside Shanghai is how dynamic cities in different administrative regions can achieve integrated development. This problem is being explored by the Yangtze River Delta Integrated Development Demonstration Zone. Here I would like to focus on the issue of efficient governance within Shanghai, that is, how cities under the same administrative district become dynamic and competitive. The building of new towns in Shanghai has lasted for two decades, but these new towns are still not as dynamic as county-level cities like Kunshan. This is also why Shanghai emphasizes the development of the five new towns. The key to efficient governance of the five new towns is to resolve the system and mechanism problems that hinder the development of the new towns.

On the issue of governance efficiency, it is very important for the municipal and district governments to coordinate with each other, that is, how to streamline administration and delegate powers regarding the major strategies, major projects and major events for the development of the new towns, implement a flattening mechanism which combines effect and efficiency, and meanwhile avoid the traditional development mode that “if we let it be, there will be a mess” and that of “urban sprawl and land enclosing”. This entails systematic institutional arrangements and innovation. In this regard, we have made some explorations. For example, the new towns should adopt a differentiated population policy compared with the main urban area. It is important to make specific arrangements on supporting policies for the new towns, such as housing, talents, transportation, public services and infrastructure construction. However, the basis of these supporting policies is for the system and mechanism to break through the previous fragmented and vertically rigid command mechanism and to make flexible and strategic arrangements relying on district-oriented and city-district cooperation. In this sense, the success of new town development in the future should be that of institutional innovation and governance innovation.

When it comes to efficient governance, high evaluation standards should be set up for the development of five new towns. I once said that urban characteristic functions, sustainability and urban cooperative governance are the three dimensions of urban development theory and practice, which respectively correspond to high-quality development, high-quality life and high-performance governance. When taking the “three high levels” into consideration, we can understand the internal logic for the new town development, namely “integration between industries and cities, complete functions, balance between occupations and residences, ecological livability, convenient transportation and efficient governance”.

Firstly, high-quality development should be connected with high-quality life. High-quality development corresponds to the characteristic functions of new town development, especially the economic functions of facilitating the development of the peripheral areas; high-quality life corresponds to the location quality of new town development, including employability, habitability, leisure, mobility and other aspects. The development of new towns can only be successful by building attractive industries and towns. The combination of the two is the original intention of the integration between industries and cities. It should be emphasized that the five new towns have already developed for some years. To a certain extent, the quality improvement of new towns should be moderately ahead of the urban industrial development, so as to attract population and talents and become bigger and stronger. For example, Nanhui New Town should undertake its external functions of international shipping and free trade. However, Nanhui must be supported by high quality of urban life. If the population and talents are not willing to live in the new towns, Nanhui New Town will not be attractive.

Secondly, high-quality development should be connected with efficient governance. The unique economic function of a city needs to be supported by the cooperative governance among governments, between the government and enterprises, and between the government and society. When discussing how to highlight the special features of the five new towns, I once suggested that these towns may introduce a globally famous, state-owned enterprise. Take Jiading for example, its leading economic functions are the automobile industry and intelligent transportation. Is it possible for SAIC to set up its headquarters in Jiading? It can not only drive the development of the new towns, but also form an enterprise node and network with global influence. In addition, competent enterprises could also participate in the construction and operation of the cities by means of cooperation between the governments and social capital, so as to promote high-quality development of the new towns jointly with the governments.

Last, high-quality life should be connected with efficient governance. In order to develop the new towns with high-quality life, we need to vigorously develop the “15 minutes’ life circle”, so that people living in the new towns can meet more than 80% of their basic needs by walk or by riding shared bicycles rather than by driving. With such a 15-minute radius, the layout of “micro-infrastructure” can be carried out, and life can be pleasant. The connection between high-quality life with efficient governance is to involve people in the planning, construction, operation and management of the “15-minute life circle” from the bottom up. Through participation, we can realize the needs and make the five new towns suitable for living, working, enjoying and traveling.

Originally published in Shanghai Observer on April 11, 2021