Chinese Urban and Rural Housing

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Chinese Urban and Rural Housing
Pamela Wyrowski and Adam Russell September 13th,
2005
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History of Urbanization

• After the Peoples Republic of China was est. in
  1949, focused on the creation of a socialist
  state.

• Walled work-unit compounds
• Tried to prevent urbanization
• 1955 passed the system of household registration
• Hukou registration for city or rural villages.
  Enforcement caused many people to leave the
  cities.
• 2001 registration reform agricultural hukou
  holders could move into small, designated cities

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Early Urbanization

• 1949 cities filled by slums and substandard
  conditions
• 1950s employers or the state provide housing,
  migrants build single story poor quality housing
• Work-unit compounds
• 1960s little residential construction
• Since 1979, taking western approach to planning

• Three types of housing since 1979, development
  of old districts, construction of new ones, and
  privatization.
• As socialists, looking to create district
  specialization while building contemporary cities

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Housing Reforms

• In 1982, urban population was 215 million. In
  2000, it hit 459 million with an annual growth
  rate of 4.7 percent.
• Since the mid-1980s, try to make low- rise,
  community-centered housing varying from the
  construction in the 1970s.
• Beijing from 1979 to 1982 built over 15 million
  square meters of housing

• In the 1980s, there was a decline in importance
  of proximity of workplace and house. The
  work-unit system continued but community
  compounds (danwei) no longer provided
  housing/social services, which became municipal
  functions.
• Reform movement of 1982 and following 5 year
  plans began to encourage foreign investment
• Fundamental change in planning because employment
  and housing were not on same site. People must
  commute. Housing subsidized by employers or
  government.

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Recent Urbanization

• Today, new housing includes groups of high-rise
  structures with parks, playgrounds and public
  facilities.
• High income earners live in the urban core areas
  and low income workers are in periphery
  districts.
• Government encourages private development.
  Mandate announced in January 1994 placing
  priority on privatization.
• Inequality rental value of privately owned
  housing
• Five year plans abandoned the objection to
  foreign investors
• Migrants form ethnic enclaves called cun

Chongqing 2003
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Wangling Xiyuan Third District, Chaoyang
District, Beijing, 2003
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Progress and the Future

• In 1995, over half of the housing constructions
  in urban China were under 16 years old. Average
  per capita living space was over two times as
  much as it was in 1979.
• Example in Shanghai in 1970s, 6 million
  residents lived in crowded apartments with few
  amenities, shared bathrooms, kitchens and
  latrines. Three generation houses typical. Only
  five buildings exceeded 20 floors.
• Between 1979-89, 830,000 households moved into
  new/renovated apartments and between 1992 and
  1996 another 800,000 households moved. In most
  cases moving led to better standard of life. By
  the 1990s it was normal for new complexes to be
  three bedrooms with windows looking out on other
  high rise towers.

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Rural Life

• Largely determined by local cultural customs,
  climate, economic structure
• Rural housing takes on a variety of forms, from
  large communal dwellings to individual farmhouses
  to cave dwellings
• Compared to urban housing, rural housing
  generally allows for greater space, but is
  subject to little regulation or quality control
  for building materials, etc. As a result, rural
  dwellings are often shoddy in construction, which
  is exacerbated by the decrease in local
  infrastructure support for housing following the
  privatization program that accompanied the
  economic reforms
• Nevertheless, the rural population in China has
  seen a sizeable increase in standards of living,
  which is translating directly into all aspects of
  rural life, including housing.

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Rural Sources of Urbanization

• Collective era (1950s early 1980s) ? Rural
  communes, focused on collective agricultural
  production.
• Postcollective, i.e. reform era ? privatized,
  household agricultural, combination of
  subsistence and cash crop (organized separately)

• Resulting increase in rural agricultural
  production (aided by wider use of modern farming
  implements) leads to two developments
• 1) Urban migration
• 2) Development of TVEs

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Rural ? Urban Migration

• The advent of the economic reform program (i.e.
  decollectivation) fundamentally changed local
  rural agriculture, making it more efficient.
• End result rural population has less work to do
  during most of the year. Many younger people
  begin migrating to urban centers in search of
  temporary jobs.

• These temporary migrants contribute to the urban
  housing issues mentioned earlier.
• Programs of rural development, including new
  housing projects, instituted
• Many rural communities becoming somewhat
  consolidated into small towns.

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TVEsTownship and Village Enterprises

• Under the new decollectivized system focused on
  household farming, many rural communities
  utilized their already communally-designed
  infrastructure in the creation of TVEs
• TVEs are basically communal entrepeneurial
  ventures, e.g. the local village population
  starts their own business

• These TVEs create a new, dynamic aspect of
  Chinas economic development, as it signals new
  opportunities for rural populations.
• Problems arise in the lack of regulation and
  oversight (e.g. vis a vis environmental
  controls), local political corruption, the
  emigration of young people to cities, etc.

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