Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
of settlements is divided into . . . the 'top grade neighbourhood'; the 'stan-
dard neighbourhood'; the 'ecological neighbourhood'”; and a surrounding
greenbelt.
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Pu Jiang is also the district where thousands of the eighteen thousand
families displaced by the world expo were relocated, into a development
known as Pu Jiang Expo Garden, the large-scale housing complex built as
partial compensation for their homes. Project planners said that in order to
stay in line with the theme of the 2010 Shanghai World Expo, Pu Jiang Expo
Garden was designed as a new concept of urban life that provides “residents
with not only regular services and facilities, but also something absent in
many Chinese cities—a green environment, with streams and wooded
areas.” And “Green Pu Jiang” is not just in the aesthetics. According to Xing
Tonghe, the chief architect of Pu Jiang Expo Garden, energy conservation
technologies have been applied in building the houses, such as the use of
outer wall heat preservation materials that could help save 50 percent of
daily energy use.
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According to an explanatory panel at an off -site exhibit on the world
expo that I visited before the o' cial opening, “the relocation has been
widely acclaimed by residents.” Expo public relations material hammers
this point relentlessly: “h e relocation of households for the World Expo
sticks to the people-fi rst philosophy, and has lived up to its name of 'Sun-
shine Relocation,' as the relocation policy is transparent. h e living condi-
tions and qualities of the relocated families have been enhanced after the
relocation. h e World Expo relocation project was welcomed by the relo-
cated families as it is in the interest of these households. . . . [M]ost of the
relocated families were satisfi ed with the relocation work.” Highly sensitive
to critiques on human rights abuses, expo o' cials took every opportunity to
point out how the relocation enacted the expo slogan of “Better City, Better
Life” when extolling the “highly praised design” of the Pu Jiang Expo Gar-
den. One of the centerpieces was a gigantic door, which “opens to new life,”
