Urban Village
Urban Villages (the village in city) are villages that appear on both outskirts and the downtown segments of major Chinese cities. They are surrounded by skyscrapers, transportation infrastructures, and other modern urban constructions. Urban villages are a Unique phenomenon that formed part of China's Urbanization efforts.
The building in the villages is very informal. Because is not built for people, it is built for the money. The one reason for the Urban village's problem is the city is growing very fast but not fast enough. The people who live here are used to be farmers. But their farmer land is turning to the city land, but their living land is still not purchased by the developers. The price of the land is going up. The policy in China is the developers need to pay the land by building area. So before the developer purchase the land, the farmer built a lot of illegal buildings on the site that can make them get more money from developers. But these buildings are built for peoples. They are poor quality, some of them even do not have windows.
The bad influence begins. More and more peoples in the villages built more and more buildings. Finally, the developers cannot afford the building area money. They just stop buying the land and then the village was surrounding the "modern building".
The informal building in the village which are not designed for people that turning to the low income apartment. The student who just graduated from school and working in the modern building is living there, the people who are working in a fast food store living there...
The building is built in an informal way or it is a mistake. But in the city, it still can find the position.
The building in the villages is very informal. Because is not built for people, it is built for the money. The one reason for the Urban village's problem is the city is growing very fast but not fast enough. The people who live here are used to be farmers. But their farmer land is turning to the city land, but their living land is still not purchased by the developers. The price of the land is going up. The policy in China is the developers need to pay the land by building area. So before the developer purchase the land, the farmer built a lot of illegal buildings on the site that can make them get more money from developers. But these buildings are built for peoples. They are poor quality, some of them even do not have windows.
The bad influence begins. More and more peoples in the villages built more and more buildings. Finally, the developers cannot afford the building area money. They just stop buying the land and then the village was surrounding the "modern building".
The informal building in the village which are not designed for people that turning to the low income apartment. The student who just graduated from school and working in the modern building is living there, the people who are working in a fast food store living there...
The building is built in an informal way or it is a mistake. But in the city, it still can find the position.
I find your post very interesting because something similar happens in Mexico. Cities grow and a lot of times the influx of people is larger than development so you end up with people building illegally at the outskirts of the city (going with machetes and everything to take over someone else's land). This comes as a big problem given that even though they are building for themselves they are building poorly and unsafe. They don't have any infrastructure (electricity, water, sewer, trash, etc.) and they start to become areas for diseases. Then, people start asking the government to provide them with infrastructure since part of them work at the city. The city is pressured and decides to build infrastructure for them. Taxes go up for everyone and they end up poorly accommodating the infrastructure to what they have built. They are in their own way urban villages with all the "amenities" that people need. Yet, they are still not the safest places to live. I think this is a huge problem and should be addressed. I mean, I am preaching to the choir here, I know, but I still don't know what is the best solution. To me, illegal construction for sure isn't because in my experience nobody ever wins.
ReplyDeleteSometimes I like the existence of urban village since it kind of keeps the identity of the city. The urban village is where local people could find their place to breath in the city. They have their own ways to live their life, regardless of what happened outside their community. There was an area of urban village in my college, where we could find most authentic local food and we are always greet by senior residents who live there. However, two years later, the whole area is exploit to a well-planned commercial street and food plaza, many students feel less interested in there anymore, since that area is no difference than any other commercial zones.
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