City residents delighted to be leaving home
The dilapidated structures in the Baoshan Road Subdistrict.
A boy brushes his teeth in a sink outside his home.
Urban relocation is a sign of hope that the city is on the road back to normality in the post pandemic period. For Zhou Qingming, it is also his personal rebirth.
On Tuesday morning, the 70-year-old and his neighbors living in squalid conditions in the north of Jing’an District began to move out their dingy homes.
Their run-down neighborhoods cover about 41,000 square meters of jerry-built shelters and shabby bungalows in the Baoshan Road Subdistrict.
The dilapidated structures, east to Gongxing Road, south to Metro Line 3, west to Xizang Road N. and north to Zhongxing Road, house a total of 1,549 families.
Over the decades, they have been squeezed in small units with cracked walls and leaky ceilings, using shared kitchens and chamber pots. In narrow alleyways, electric wires are tangled above head height while rats and cockroaches are everywhere.
The residents have been looking forward to leaving. They have signed relocation deals which will take them to designated housing or give them cash to buy houses.
“I’ve been waiting for this moment in all of my life, and it finally came,” Zhou said.
Zhou Qingming sitting in his small unit.
Zhou grew up in a 10.2-square-meter unit on Huiwen Road with his parents and two sisters.
“I remember when I was young I shared a bed with my father, and my mother and two sisters slept on the other bed,” he said. “Our family didn’t have privacy. The sink, which was shared by two families, was beside my bed.”
When he was young, neighbors and relatives introduced him to about a dozen girlfriends, and one of them wanted to marry him.
“But when I took her home to see my parents. She didn’t hesitate to break up with me because of the squalid conditions,” Zhou said, describing it as one of his biggest regrets in life.
Zhou never got married, and today lives alone after his parents died and his sisters married. “I’m getting older and weaker. It has become too heavy for me to take chamber pots out every day. Also, ambulances can’t drive in such a narrow alleyway,” he said.
Zhou is renting a house in Yangpu District, where he will be close to his younger sister. “We can take care of each other,” he said.
“I was so excited when the relocation plan was passed in December last year. I thought I could finally leave this place. Unexpectedly, the novel coronavirus outbreak came early this year. I was so worried and feared that the pandemic would stop the plan,” said Shen Zhenmei.
She added: “To my surprise, authorities responded quickly. We are so excited.”
Her family of 10 live in a self-built shelter on Yongxing Road.
Initially, she lived with her parents, brother and sister in a 15-square-meter shelter. After the three children grew up and got married, their parents added two floors, which posed high safety risks.
“We didn’t have beds. We just slept one by one on the floor,” she said. “Now, we can move to new modern apartment building. My 90-year-old mother doesn’t need to climb steep stairs any longer.”
To avoid people gathering during the pandemic, the subdistrict has turned to the Internet to update new policies, seek opinions from residents and answer their questions. It has also developed an online platform for residents to view their new houses.
“When I couldn’t fall asleep at night, I would open the app to see my future home. It made me feel eased when I saw those modern buildings, clean roads and beautiful flowers in the residential complex,” said a resident surnamed Zhou.
Shen Zhenmei says goodbye to her neighbor.
