One City, Nine Towns

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'One City, Nine Towns' (German: one city, nine places) is an initiative of the city government of Shanghai in 2001. The aim of the project was to find ten attractive suburb settlements to counteract the housing shortage. [1]

Planned cities[change | change source]

The nine cities are spread across the Shanghai metropolitan area and have individual western themes. [2] None of the nine Cities were designed by Chinese architects. [3]

topic local community district Remarks
 China Zhujiajiao Qingpu
 Germany Anting German Town Jiading Planned by Albert Speer & Partner, Frankfurt (Albert Speer junior)
Ecology Lingang Pudong
 United Kingdom Songjiang New City Songjiang Thames Town is part of the Garden City
 Italy Pujiang Minhang
 Netherlands Gaoqiao Holland Village Pudong Planned by Atelier Dutch, Almere and Kuiper Compagnons, Rotterdam [4] [5]
 Canada Fengjing Jinshan abandoned [6]
Planned by Corban and Goode, Toronto
 Sweden Luodian North European New Town Baoshan The artificial Meilansee is a replica of the Mälaren.
Planned by SWECO, Stockholm
 Spain Fengcheng Fengxian

Development[change | change source]

The planning for the pilot project began in 2001 and was largely completed in 2007. From 2011, of the nine planned cities, in particular Anting as ghost town repeatedly hit the headlines, especially in Germany and English media. [7] [8] Anting, around 34 kilometers west of the center of Shanghai, is, among other things, the location of the German-Chinese Joint Venture s Shanghai Volkswagen and one of the centers of the Chinese automotive industry. The district `` Anting German Town has a living space capacity for 25,000 people. By contrast, the number of inhabitants is said to have risen to just 7,000 by 2014. The main causes were the location, accessibility and high property prices. [9]

For a condominium in Anting German Town in 2010 about 13,000 Renminbi per square meter had to be paid, which corresponded to about 1,600 euros. However, the price per square meter in the inner ring of Shanghai was already up to 30,000 Renminbi at that time, and even higher in the direct center. [10] As of 2012, the Shanghai city government provided the necessary funds to expand the infrastructure. The Shanghai subway line 11 has been in Anting since October 2014, followed by schools and kindergartens. At the same time, enormous increases in house prices have been driving people since 2015

References[change | change source]