DO GOOD PLANNING AND DESIGN FOR THE PUDONG NEW AREA1
OCTOBER 15, 1990
During the next decade of urban planning and construction in Shanghai, the focus of the first five years will be on solving the problems in Puxi, while also working on starting up Pudong; the focus of the second five years will shift to Pudong, because developing Pudong must rely on Puxi. In light of current domestic and international conditions, and also taking economic and social benefits into consideration, we must first resolve the problem of traffic in Puxi. If after three years the two bridges and the high-speed elevated ring road still haven’t reached Pudong, then the development of Pudong will just be an empty phrase. Given our existing funding and capacity, there should be no problem in completing the two bridges and the ring road in about three years. In addition, there should be a clear passage for north-south traffic in Puxi—we’ll have to build several overpasses in the downtown area. We must also strengthen management measures, establish special lanes for motorized vehicles and create one-way streets. Moreover, in three years’ time, the first phase of the Metro will be in operation, and there will be significant improvement in traffic conditions across the entire city. This will have an incalculable effect on the economy, on society, and on people’s minds. With this foundation, we can then shift the emphasis of the second five years to Pudong.
In developing Pudong, we must consider how to provide foreign businessmen with a good investment environment, but also a good living environment. This is one of the goals in developing Pudong. It’s not just to give foreigners a good investment environment and living environment, it’s also to create conditions for industries to move from Puxi to Pudong, and to create ideal conditions for residents to settle down in Pudong.
The first step in Pudong will mainly be the large-scale construction of housing, with matching urban facilities, commerce, hospitals, and schools. In addition, we will build a number of small development zones on several parcels of land—for example, the Waigaoqiao Bonded Tax-Free Zone, the Jinqiao Export Processing Zone, and the Lujiazui Finance and Trade Zone. I believe that after the inner ring road is completed, the bridges are opened to traffic, ferry services are somewhat improved, and a lot of housing is built along both sides of the ring road in Pudong, residents of Puxi will be willing to move there. At the same time, good planning must be done for the Lujiazui area across the river from the Bund. There should be several modern structures like the Bank of China Group’s financial tower, the TV tower, and the opera house.
The second step is to build the Pudong section of the outer ring road toward the coastline, to build an outer ring road along the East China Sea that connects to the new airport. Once this road is built, people will buy the land adjacent to it. We can think about building a main artery that goes across the river from the Yanan Road East tunnel through the Huamu area all the way to the seaside airport. I’m in favor of learning from the way Tianjin built its ring roads. They made a breakthrough in their planning—once the outer ring road was completed, everything inside came alive, and a “cluster method” can be used when implementing the plan, developing land plot by plot.
The third step is to turn around and rebuild, to fix up the entire east bank of the Huangpu River and build a tree-lined boulevard along the river’s edge.
Finally, we can think about building a Disneyland at the northernmost tip of the Pudong New Area (the land above the Waigaoqiao port). In short, we must plan and design the Pudong New Area in line with the standards of a first-rate international city.
1. This is part of a speech by Zhu Rongji at a symposium on urban development and planning in Shanghai.