The Background and Objective of Building a World Ecological Garden City

The model for Chengdu’s initiative is the Garden City movement initiated in the late 19th century by the British urban thinker Ebenezer Howard in To-Morrow: A Peaceful Path to Real Reform (revised in 1902 as Garden Cities of To-morrow).⁴ This book described a kind of place that could enjoy the benefits of both a city – as opportunity, amusement, and good wages; and countryside – beauty, fresh air, and low rent.

Chengdu began to organise around the principles of an ecological city in 2007. In 2009, this was defined as the long-term objective of building a world ecological garden city within 20 years, and being recognised as a world city within 30–50 years. The core features of such a city are natural beauty, social justice, and urban–rural integration. It has four basic elements:

• ■ A progression from national central city to regional central city in the world economy, and being finally recognised as a world city in its own right.
• ■ Modernisation. Chengdu intends to make West China part of a globalised economic environment.
• ■ Chengdu is set to become a multi-centre, clustered and networked city with a rural–urban spatial layout and a population of 20 million.
• ■ Chengdu as a garden city will realise a harmony between city and countryside; a balance between modernity and heritage.

The Process of Building a World Ecological Garden City

The key components of this process are:

• ■ Taking the central city as the core, Chengdu forms an urban–rural layout. Cities, towns, and villages are separated from each other by farmland.
• ■ A corridor-like, clustered, and network-shaped rural–urban space layout forms ‘green hills and blue waters surrounding bamboo groves, big cities and small towns embedded in farmland’.

Chengdu forms a modern industrial system with service industry and headquarters economy at the core, alongside high-tech technology industry, powerful modern manufacturing, and modern agriculture, thus:

• ■ Modern agriculture is co-developed with secondary and tertiary industries, including tourism, logistics, commerce, and trade.
• ■ The central city will house company headquarters and high-tech industry as well as high-end manufacturing industry.
• ■ The central city will also site other aspects of the tertiary sector including financial services and a cultural and creative sector. Alongside the high-end manufacturing in the second and third layers will also be modern service industry, creative hubs, international trade and commerce, tourism, and logistics ventures.

There has to be a much more intensive use of resources with respect to both urban construction and industrial development.

• ■ Intensive utilisation of resources. Into the 2020s, there will be a limit to land available for new construction. Consequently, there has to be intensive land utilisation. Moreover, Chengdu lacks water. Water has to be recycled and the limited sources used more effectively. Chengdu’s power supply depends on external input so it also needs to be used more effectively.
• ■ Intensive urban construction. Cities and towns are constructed in an intensive way. Central urban districts, with modern service industry as their main function, are in intensive spatial forms. Surrounding districts and new satellite cities aggregate around cluster centres and transportation hubs.
• ■ Intensive industrial development. This is achieved by concentration on industrial parks with an industrial centralisation rate above 80 per cent. Intensive use of industrial land means increasing the floor area ratio of industrial land to above 1.5.
• ■ Intensive rural area development. Chengdu aims to develop modern agriculture in a scaled and refined way, which focuses on high added-value agriculture with the use of compact buildings in rural areas.

Urban districts should have multiple functions for working, living, leisure, and transportation. This generates both economic vitality and liveability and fully utilises space both above and underground. A mixed environment also helps to create living communities which are rarely empty in the day, such as parks and residential areas; or at night, such as vacated business centres.

• ■ People-centred spatial arrangement. By avoiding excessively wide streets and oversized squares, buildings in Chengdu have been allocated with appropriate street and lane space and open public space, as well as a variety of shops.
• ■ People-centred function: medical care, education, cultural activities, shopping and entertainment, and other public services are provided in each area.
• ■ People-centred infrastructure. Chengdu develops easy-to-use public infrastructure for the needs of the population.

There is a concern that the city’s environment should include a relationship to the rural and the natural, summed up as ‘mountain, water and farmland’.

• ■ To this end, the nearby Longmen and Longquan Mountains are protected, so inhabitants have the feeling of ‘living in the forest’.
• ■ Farmlands in urban areas – farmlands are not only for agricultural production, but also have an ecological and leisure function.
• ■ Parks and gardens – green land is spread throughout the city, including the centre, and the preservation of green spaces gives built-up areas the sense of being town rather than suburbs.
• ■ The roads between cities and towns, and towns and villages follow the natural topography in order to give the landscape harmony.
• ■ The distinctive Linpan culture in Western Sichuan, with its unique farm scenery and distinctive environmental characteristics, will be preserved.
• ■ This also applies to the inherited and diverse spatial outline and different styles of architecture, dispelling homogeneity and anonymity.

Figure 11.5: Countryside in Chengdu

Figure 11.6: Chengdu Shuangliu Airport

Transport-oriented development comprises both linking the parts of Chengdu and linking Chengdu to national and international networks. Shuangliu International is Chengdu’s second airport. It is an international airline hub with a passenger volume of 99 million each year. It also makes Chengdu – after Beijing and Shanghai – the third Chinese city to have two airports.

On the high-speed rail network Chengdu is the centre of a number of transportation circles. The two-hour circle takes in adjacent provincial capitals such as Guiyang and Kunming. A four-hour circle reaches out as far as Xi’an, Wuhan, and Lanzhou while an eight-hour transportation circle connects with the Bohai Economic Circle, Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei Economic Zone, the Yangtze River Delta, and the Pearl River Delta. Chengdu will also have direct rail links to West Asia, Europe, South Asia, and Southeast Asia.

• ■ By road, 20 hours will encompass the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei Economic Zone, the Yangtze River Delta, and the Pearl River Delta. Again, it will be a highway transportation hub that connects Central Asia, South Asia, West Asia, and Europe.
• ■ The urban transportation network will integrate road, subway, and bus networks as well as the logistics infrastructure. The road network will be multilayered, with both ring and radial connections. The central city will be connected to counties by highways and expressways, counties connected to towns by national highways, and towns connected to villages by village-level roads.
• ■ Both the subway and bus system integrate urban and rural elements of the overall city.

This develops a public service system and basic infrastructure that can cover both rural and urban areas. Chengdu emphasises the importance of meeting standards right across the city, in the following ways:

• ■ Standardisation of supporting projects. It has different standards for supporting the construction of central cities, counties, key towns, ordinary towns, and new communities in rural areas. For example, there are nine categories each of about 100 items for supporting projects for central cities and counties. They include criteria for education, medical care, sports, culture, business, and government buildings.
• ■ Standardisation of supporting functions. The standards of functioning facilities are established for a comprehensive range of social and public facilities including schools, medical care institutes, cultural facilities, sports facilities, and community service facilities. For example, the standards require that the relevant government departments should build high schools in cities, middle schools in towns, primary schools near villages, and central kindergartens in all towns. In the medical care system, for counties: comprehensive hospitals (plus specialist and Chinese medicine hospitals), community medical care centres, and community medical care stations. Comprehensive hospitals (plus specialist and Chinese medicine hospitals) or standard medical care centres for centre towns, standard medical care centres for other towns, and medical care stations for rural communities.

Adhering to Overall Planning and Top-level Design

The coordination of planning and execution has been an important element of success.

Implementing overall planning and design helps to ensure coverage of all geographical areas, and the supervision of implementation. Chengdu emphasises consistency in economic and social development planning, industrial development, the general planning of towns, land utilisation planning, transportation development planning, and new village development planning. For example, Chengdu combines the construction of industrial parks with new towns to form an organic ecology.

Establishing the Administration Structure and Improving System Coordination

Chengdu has set up a committee for overall urban and rural development led by municipal leaders and involving the participation of related departments. Based on the concept of city and industrial integration, Chengdu selects some cities and towns that have a solid industrial basis as pilots for future development. For example, Chengdu Economic Development Zone, based on the existing car industry, synchronises the construction of infrastructure for the economic zone and for the town. In another case, Pujiang Shouan New Town seeks to implement a development mode that can integrate city and industry with ecological beauty. It actively pushes the integration of living areas and production areas, production areas and public leisure areas, and production areas and related service areas.

The Features of Building a World Ecological Garden City

These are as follows:

• ■ Industries and cities complement each other. The level of industry globalisation reflects the level of urban globalisation. Industry is concentrated in order to make the city both more productive and environmentally diverse.
• ■ Chengdu promotes urbanisation through opening-up and internationalisation. It aims to develop an international financial centre alongside its technology, trade and commerce, and logistics centre, resulting in a broader base for development.
• ■ Chengdu makes the ecological and aesthetic foundation of the city a priority. It emphasises the protection of mountains, rivers, land, and forests. It strives to develop and maintain organic connections between forests, parks, rivers, wetlands, and streets.

Figure 11.8: Shouan New Town

Figure 11.9: Commercial Street with Chengdu Characteristics, Broad and Narrow Alley

• ■ As one of the leading Chinese historical and cultural cities, Chengdu seeks to manifest its Ba-shu culture in its urban renovation. It not only protects tangible historical streets and blocks, but also protects intangible cultural brands and urban cultural landmarks.

People-orientation is the starting point. The main purpose of urban development is to make better lives for more people. Close attention is paid to enhancing the daily lives of citizens through environmental improvement, public service, and social administration. Such a city will attract more talent to Chengdu and further enhance the quality of life for all.