Relocation begins at dilapidated Baoshan neighborhood
Residents of a downtown ghetto are finally bidding farewell to their dingy abodes and moving on to better places.
Located in the Baoshan Road Subdistrict of downtown Jing’an District, the area in question covers about 70,000 square meters and features many dilapidated wood-and-brick structures.
Bound by Zhiyuan Road to the east, Zhonghuaxin Road to the south, Xizang Road N. to the west and Zhijiang Road M. to the north, it is home to 2,260 families who have been living for decades in shabby houses with shared kitchens and toilets, cracked walls and leaky ceilings.
More than 99 percent of residents put their names on the dotted line on the first day of relocation consultation on August 31, showing that they were very eager to leave the area's poor environment, local officials said.
On December 10, they signed to accept relocation deals which would move them to designated housing or provide cash compensation to buy houses on their own.
On Wednesday morning, the first batch of ten families started to move out.
Auntie Wang has been living in No.49, Lane 750, Xizang Road N. for 40 years.
She went to Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture in Yunnan Province in her youth to alleviate poverty. There, she met her husband and gave birth to her son. When they returned to Shanghai, they moved to a three-floor house with about 20 square-meters.
This home is where her son got married, and where her grandson grew up.
“We don’t have a private toilet and bathroom. When it is rainy outside, it is raining insides too,” she said. “Three generations of our family were squeezed into such a small house. We all wanted to move out.”
Xu Wei has lived in a small unit on Zhiyuan Road for 54 years, since he was five years old. He shares a shack of 10 square meters with his wife and child. Upstairs lives his brother’s family.
“Though I’m retired, I still work because I need to earn money to buy a house for my son to get married,” he said. “The cash compensation really helps a lot.”
While many senior residents were happy, some were also worried about relocation. They can finally live in modern apartments, but must say goodbye to their old friends.
These included the 93-year-old Xu Rui’e and Zhou Hefu who lived their whole lives on Zhonghuaxin Road. They dressed up and took a picture in front of their old house before being relocated.
From January till the end of November, the city’s urban renewal program has covered 553,000 square meters of old residential compounds and benefited 29,000 families, which exceeded this year’s planned 500,000 square meters.
Also, more than 9,000 families who live in aging cramped neighborhoods, which are not on the urban renewal agenda, finally said goodbye to chamber pots thanks to a citywide campaign to add individual toilets and bathrooms in old homes.
Currently, shabby houses with shared kitchens and toilets are mainly located in Huangpu, Yangpu and Hongkou districts.
In Huangpu, the riverside areas along the Huangpu River, dotted with shikumen buildings, are very rare yet they are good land assets in downtown Shanghai. So, scientific evaluation and new renewal concepts should be applied, according to city mayor Ying Yong.
Ying asked for an overall qualified renewal plan for the riverside areas in Yangpu, which is expected to have new functions.
Also, he stressed that the historical landscape should be preserved during the urban renewal, and the renovated neighborhoods should inject vitality to cater to people’s needs.