Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
says, “'h ey know me pretty well in this neighborhood, because I like to ride
through here a lot,' . . . raising his voice to be heard over the growling motor.
'What they don't know,' he adds with a hint of regret, 'is that I'm also the
guy who is going to make this way of life disappear.'”
26
Wood's Zhu Jia Jiao
project, costing eighty million dollars, is “inspired by China's 13th-century
water-town plans stitched together with picturesque foot bridges and semi-
detached contemporary-style condos.”
27
From the original planning statements to the fi nished product, ecological
images and rhetoric have been central to marketing these new international
suburbias. h e signs in An Ting, the town explicitly linked to Shanghai's auto
production industry, call relentlessly for “Low Carbon: h e Original Ecologi-
cal German Style Apartments” (see fi gure 6). h ames Town signs urge resi-
dents to “enjoy sunlight. Enjoy nature. Enjoy your life and holiday” (see
fi gure 5). Part of the distinctiveness of these developments aimed to attract
buyers and investors is the value that ecology adds, in sharp contrast to the
buyer's notions of what suburban housing can and should look like.
In other words, the One City, Nine Towns project depended on promoting
a
stereotypical
nature in the form of the built (national) environment. Despite
the concept of diversity of national forms and real estate development, what
unites these developments is the crude cudgel of nature. In one typical
speech before the Shanghai Suburban Investment Environment group titled
“Shanghai Suburbs: Hot Land for Investment,” one government o' cial
explained how the plan fi t with the goals of Shanghai's suburban develop-
ment. First, industry, population, and foreign capital would be transferred
from the center to the periphery. Second, social services would be increased.
h ird, and most important, these new developments would stress ecology,
described as “green agriculture, ecological environment construction, forest
and water systems, eco-forest environment with humans and nature.”
28
h e rhetoric is that given Shanghai's need to develop a radically new
style of “ecological planning,” it seemed only natural to “learn from foreign
