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Hangzhou: A Paradise on Earth
Hangzhou is famous, along with Suzhou, as one of the most beautiful cities in China, not only for its natural setting – the West Lake – but also because of its gardens and historic buildings. Hangzhou is also the capital of Zhejiang, one of the most prosperous provinces in China, and along with Shanghai and Nanjing (capital of Jiangsu), is a key player in the Yangtze Delta Economic Zone.
The prosperity of Zhejiang, its proximity to Shanghai, its distinctive urban landscape centred on the West Lake, and its fast-rising university all make it very attractive to high-tech industry and entrepreneurs seeking economic opportunity and quality of life. In order to realise this potential, Hangzhou planners have had to rethink the pattern of urban expansion to allow development while still foregrounding the city’s historic advantages.
Hangzhou has a long history. It became a well-known commercial and important trade port as early as the Tang Dynasty. It is one of the seven ancient capitals of China and has a documented history of more than 2,200 years. There is even evidence of human habitation in Hangzhou 4,700 years ago. The city has many beautiful scenic spots and historic sites, such as West Lake and Xixi Wetland Park.
In 1183, the Southern Song Dynasty decided to move the capital to Hangzhou, and it soon became a national political, economic, educational, and cultural centre. From then, along with Suzhou, the city was known as a ‘Paradise on Earth’. Throughout succeeding dynasties the city was both an important trading hub and a cultural and tourism centre. These features defined its development: the ‘integration of lake and city’.
Since 1949, especially during the past 30 years of economic reform and opening-up, the city has developed rapidly. However, this economic expansion has come increasingly into conflict with its original function and layout. Since 1980, development took place in a relatively small geographical area around the West Lake, the historical centre of Hangzhou’s cultural and aesthetic legacy. Therefore, the key point of Hangzhou’s transformation is to break the old development pattern, and to reconsider the relationship between the landscape and economic development.
The Background of Transformation Development
Hangzhou is located in the north of Zhejiang Province and near the southeast coast of China. The city sits on the north shore of the Qiantang River at the southern end of the Beijing–Hangzhou Grand Canal.
Figure 10.1: West Lake, Hangzhou
Hangzhou is one of the most important transport-hub cities in Southeast China and is sub-provincial. At the end of 2013, the total area of Hangzhou was 16,596 km2, and the municipal district area was 3,068 km2. The total population was 8.844 million, and the municipal district population was 6.3562 million. According to Hangzhou City Overall Planning (2001–20),1 the city aims to be the pioneer area of Beautiful China. By 2020 the resident population in Hangzhou will be controlled within 10 million while that in the central urban area will be controlled within 4 million. By 2020 the urban and rural construction land will be controlled within 1119 km2, among which the urban construction land will be controlled within 729 km2 and that in the central area will be controlled within 430 km2. In 2014, the city’s GDP was CNY920.12 billion, and the per capita GDP was CNY103,757, placing it in the top ten in China. The primary sector accounted for an added value of CNY27.44 billion, the secondary sector added value was CNY385.89 billion, and the tertiary sector added value was CNY506.79 billion.
This gives the following economic structure – 3.0:41.9:55.1. From 2012 to 2014, Hangzhou took, respectively, the fifth, sixth, and seventh position in China’s Urban Transformation and Upgrading Capability list.
The Evolution of City Function
After the founding of the PRC, Hangzhou made great strides as both a scenic tourist city, and as the political, economic, and cultural centre of Zhejiang Province. During the ‘First Five-year’ period, industrial production expanded rapidly. During the ‘Second Five-year’ period, the city function was transformed from a single consumer service-based city to a comprehensive production-based city, and this had a profound influence on the city’s later development.
On 12 March 2001, the State Council officially approved the revocation of the county-level Xiaoshan City and Yuhang City and merged them into Hangzhou as Xiaoshan District and Yuhang District. In December 2014, the State Council approved the revocation of the county-level Fuyang City and merged it into Hangzhou as Fuyang District. These adjustments of city boundaries have provided new chances for the city. Hangzhou strengthened its functions of comprehensive service competitiveness, has intensively developed its technology industries, and turned greater attention to its environment.
Table 10.1: Area and Population of Subdivisions
The Expansion of City Space
The spatial expansion took place in two stages. The first was an expansion encircling the West Lake.
At the end of the 1950s, under the slogan ‘developing the economy, securing supplies’, industrial production expanded rapidly. Large industrial zones appeared on the outskirts of Hangzhou. As the centre grew, these industrial zones became connected with the centre. This spontaneous expansion has made the central city much bigger and the regional spatial structure has become more and more complicated.
In the early 1990s, the city entered a rapid development period, while the spatial expansion faced new problems as land was scarce. This trend was more serious after 1992. The sprawling expansion together with intensive construction on the outskirts brought new problems, such as the phenomenon of ‘villages within the city’, areas of rural status surrounded by an urban environment, as well as the loss of farmland in the suburbs. There were three consequences: the city centre became less attractive for tourism, high-end services did not develop at the same rate, and the city’s aesthetic and cultural qualities became endangered.
The development of Hangzhou reflects the traditional growth path of big Chinese cities. The contradiction between city function and spatial layout is not simply the problem of ‘using land’. In essence, it is that the process of urbanisation lags behind industrialisation, and city development lags behind economic development. Hangzhou’s policymakers have reinterpreted the relationship between the city and economic development.
The Challenges of Transformation
City Planning
For a long time, Hangzhou developed around the West Lake and, taking the old city as the centre, spread outward in a circular expansion. With the increase of population this could not be sustained and led to urban decay. The task was to find new ways of using the available space with a new layout and overcome the limitations of operating from a single and historically defined city centre.
City Construction
Previously, big buildings, roads, and overpasses were the symbols of modernisation. City administrators adopted the method of ‘reconstruction of the old city’ to remove old buildings, streets and the old downtown to build a new city, in other words, tearing it down. The new city was akin to a cement jungle. This resulted in serious damage to the traditional city features, cuts off the city’s historical context, and erases its individuality – one size fits all. The problem was how to grow the city space without losing its specificity as a place. Given its historic beauty and significance this is a core issue for Hangzhou.
City Management
The urban area has expanded from the original 683 to 3,068 km2. It has become a city with a resident population of 8.7 million. Rapid urbanisation increases the difficulty of city management. How to update the idea of city management and optimise the city management system is a major challenge. On the other hand, the spatial expansion is an opportunity to reimagine the whole city and the relationship of the parts to each other and to the whole.
Industrial Structure Adjustment and Upgrading
Hangzhou is a city with few natural resources, and although once a port city its historic canal is unsuitable for a modern economy. Given its role as a historic and cultural centre, heavy industrial development is also unsuitable. At the same time, as the capital of one of China’s richest provinces Hangzhou has seen its per capita GDP leaping from $10,000 to $20,000. Aligning this prosperity with an appropriate industrial upgrading is a key task for the city administrators.
City Traffic
From 1999 to 2014, the number of Hangzhou’s motor vehicles has risen from 0.338 million to 2.54 million. Although Hangzhou has implemented a series of road improvement works in recent years, the city road construction is far behind the growth of motor vehicles, and traffic gridlock is a serious problem.
City Housing
There are still many families, vulnerable groups, and low-income earners who cannot buy commercial housing or even affordable housing and this is exacerbated by Hangzhou’s prosperity and its attraction for better-off residents. The housing problems for two ‘sandwich-class’ groups are especially prominent:
- ■ Those low-income families who can neither meet the requirements of low-rent housing nor afford to purchase affordable housing.
- ■ Those low-income families who can neither meet the requirements to purchase affordable housing nor afford commercial housing.
- ■ In addition, there are a large number of ‘new Hangzhou’ – those who dwell in the ‘villages within the city’.
‘Villages in the City’3
The city’s spatial expansion has enveloped a number of villages that retain their rural status. The holding of rural tenure enables the original villagers to sublet – often extremely ramshackle – housing to migrant workers. These then become areas of severe economic and social deprivation.
City Public Governance
In modern society, government is no longer the only body of public governance. Social organisations, enterprises, and individuals have become important players and partners. Developing new models of community participation and institutional cooperation is crucial to the transformation of government functions and innovation in social management.
City Ecological Environment
In 2011, China began to implement a revised version of the ‘ambient air quality standard’. The new national standard includes a density of PM2.5 and the density of ozone concentration per eight hours. The urbanisation here is to protect the environment, and to balance a ‘mountain of gold and silver’ with a scene of ‘green water and the mountain’.
Hangzhou’s Transformation in Practice
Figure 10.2: Village in the City, Hangzhou
Hangzhou’s future economic, social, and environmental success is bound up with the ability to take its historic attributes and use them with a sophisticated high-end economy. There needs to be a symbiotic relationship between the heritage and the advanced economy to create a new cultural dynamic.
Promoting the City’s Organic Renewal
In recent years, Hangzhou has not only absorbed the prescriptions of city renewal theory, it has also learned practical, and negative, lessons of ‘destroying the old and building the new’ from the experience of other cities. The biological concept of the ‘organism’ has found its way into city construction. Hangzhou insists on eight guiding principles for its development: people-orientation, protection first, ecological priority, cultural emphasis, integrated composition, quality first, intensification and resource-saving, and historical sensitivity.
In 2001, Hangzhou began to formulate a new overall plan, adjusting the city’s spatial layout in order to provide platforms to transform the development. The current version of Hangzhou City Overall Planning (2001–20) insists on the idea of ‘protecting the old city, and building a new city’. This involves changing the city development pattern from a circle form to a group form: ‘city expansion towards the east, tourism towards the west, and development along and across the Qiantang River’.
Figure 10.3: Xixi Wetland
From the beginning of the 21st century, Hangzhou has implemented three rounds of urban construction, called the ‘Ten Big Projects’. Hangzhou insists on the principle of ‘protection first, protecting all that should be protected’. For example, it has promoted the organic renewal of streets and buildings to retain the original, historic city features. It has implemented comprehensive protection projects for West Lake, Xixi Wetland, landmark cultural facilities, and University City. It has implemented a series of projects on road networks and city infrastructure and comprehensive protection projects on ancient canals and urban rivers.
Xixi Wetland
In August 2003, Hangzhou launched the Xixi Wetland comprehensive protection project. By adjusting the density of buildings, and reducing the environmental carrying capability, the plant species have increased from 221 to 553; the resident species of fish and water birds have reached 50; and the species of other birds have increased from 79 to 142. The water quality in most areas of the wetland still remains third-class in quality standard, but there is improvement, and in some areas, second-class water quality standard has been achieved. The traditional farming and fishery culture is protected together with the renovation of old houses and the restoration of the unique human landscape. Xixi Wetland has been named ‘China’s most beautiful place’ by China National Geography. In July 2009, it was selected as an international important wetland by Wetlands International and in January 2012, Xixi Wetland was awarded national 5A tourist attraction status
Building the ‘3+1’ Modern Industrial System
Hangzhou’s goal is to build a modern industrial system linking with the world and representing the characteristics of the city. This is a ‘3+1’ modern industrial system: ‘3’ is modern agriculture, industry, and service industry; ‘1’ is cultural and creative industry.
For the purposes of development, the cultural and creative industries are considered a separate entity, as is a knowledge-intensive and intelligence-oriented industry whose distinctive features are ‘brain + computer + culture’. From the beginning of the 21st century, Hangzhou proposed to develop the cultural and creative industries and emphasised eight categories: information services, animation and game development, design services, new media, art, education and training, culture and leisure tourism, and a cultural exhibition centre.
In 2011, the city’s added value from the cultural and creative industry hit CNY84.3 billion, 12 per cent of Hangzhou’s GDP. In 2012, Hangzhou won permission from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to join the Creative Cities of Global Networks. Hangzhou is the fifth city (for ‘Craft and Folk Art’) joining Santa Fe (USA), Aswan (Egypt), Kanazawa (Japan), and Icheon (Korea).
Developing the Economy by Developing the Urban Environment
Creating Growth Poles by Merging with the Yangtze River Delta
Regional Planning of the Yangtze River Delta proposes that Hangzhou should strive to build a ‘high-tech industrial base, important international tourism and leisure centre, national cultural and creative centre, e-business centre, and regional financial services centre’.4 Hangzhou aims to connect with Nanjing, in Jiangsu Province, and along with Shanghai will be a key player in the collective integration of the Yangtze River Delta.
In 2010, the opening of the Shanghai–Hangzhou Intercity High-speed Railway made the ‘one city effect’ much more obvious. An important connected action is the construction of East New Town in Hangzhou’s east gate. The core area of East New Town is 9.3 km2 with comprehensive functions including a traffic hub, high-end businesses, leisure and tourism services, and residential areas. East Railway Station is located at its centre. It has an area of 300,000 m2 and had a total investment of about CNY12 billion.
Promoting High-end Industries by Constructing New Towns
Hangzhou is working around the concept of a ‘compact city’, which focuses on ideas of ‘competitive, large scale, superior service, a beautiful environment, high quality’.5 A prime example of this is the speedy construction of new towns, as the important platforms for the innovative industrial system. One example is Qianjiang New Town. This is located in the southeast of the downtown region, about 4.5 km away from the West Lake scenic region, and its planned area is about 21 km2.
Figure 10.4: Hangzhou East Railway Station
The transition from the ‘West Lake era’ to the ‘Qiantang River era’ was achieved between 2001 and 2008. The goal was to build ‘a central business district, a new landmark for Hangzhou and a platform of modern service’ through ‘high-level planning, high-standard construction, high-intensity investment, and high-performing management’. This includes:
- ■ a major public square;
- ■ an underground cultural complex;
- ■ a landscape platform;
- ■ one bund (a scenic route along the river);
- ■ ‘two rivers’ – the Xintang River and Jianggan River;
- ■ ‘two libraries’ – Hangzhou New Library and Exhibition Hall of Hangzhou City Planning;
- ■ ‘two tunnels’ – a new city tunnel and Qianjiang Tunnel;
- ■ ‘two theatres’ – Hangzhou Grand Theatre and Hangzhou Branch of Chinese Chess;
- ■ ‘two parks’ – Century Park and Forest Park;
- ■ ‘four centres’ – a Public Centre, an International Conference Centre, Hangzhou Youth Development Centre, and Jianggan Culture and Sports Centre.
Developing the Economy by Constructing a City Complex and Commercial Buildings
The type and balance of buildings is a strategic choice that not only determines the city’s spatial order but also its development path. The choice is between business buildings, commercial buildings, city complexes, scientific research buildings (including technological incubators), standard buildings for rent or sale, protected buildings (including historical architecture, old houses, industrial heritage, campus heritage), and rural dwelling SOHO.6
Hangzhou insists on moving towards a headquarters economy, alongside a cultural and creative one, plus a tax-sourcing one. For example, since 2011, the number of buildings whose tax revenue is over CNY100 million in Xiacheng District is more than 16.
Developing the Suburban Economy Through New Metropolitan Areas
A tough problem in Hangzhou is that in the past development has been unbalanced. The development of the eastern city is quicker and stronger than in the west; and there is further imbalance between urban and rural areas. The aim is to ensure that urban areas lead the development of rural areas, and eastern development drives forward the west. Since 2000, Hangzhou has accelerated the construction of metropolitan areas to promote balanced development.
Figure 10.5: Qianjiang New Town
Developing Headquarters by Improving the Business Environment
Since 2000, Hangzhou has firmly established the policy of ‘environmental priority’ and the philosophy that environmental investment gives the highest return. It strives to make Hangzhou the most attractive place to live in terms of culture, administration, and environment in order to attract first-class talent and enterprises. In 2013, 53 enterprises from Hangzhou were enrolled in the list of the Top 500 Chinese Private Enterprises, accounting for 38.1 per cent of those in the province, and 10.6 per cent in the country.
Making Hangzhou a Service-oriented City
With the process of urbanisation, the suburban industrial districts gradually become the central area of the city, and this brings problems. The intermixed layout of industrial enterprises and residential areas seriously limits quality of life. Some industrial enterprises occupy this golden land, but do not bring golden benefits.
At the beginning of 2002, Hangzhou implemented a ‘relocation project for industrial enterprises’. By the end of 2010, the relocation of industrial enterprises from the old city had been largely completed. Hangzhou’s landscape has been preserved, and the environment has been significantly improved. As a result, Hangzhou is now supremely attractive for residents, tourists, and key businesses.
Figure 10.6: Alibaba Group