Enclosed Residential Communities to Fade Out in China?
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The undated photo shows an encircled residential community in China. [Photo: china.ynet.com]

China's central authorities on Sunday issued new guidelines on urban development, which aim to make China's sprawling cities more livable, efficient and green.

One highlight of the document indicates China will no longer develop enclosed residential communities in the future.

Yang Baojun, Deputy Director of the China Academy of Urban Planning and Design, believes that Chinese cities should make substantial changes, starting with the existing closed-off residential compounds.

"The concept of encircled residence spreads from the agricultural culture. Each resident community looks like an independent kingdom, and the public service facilities can't be shared among them. However, modern cities should be open, featuring public activities and spaces."

Yang also provides a practical way to better carry out the guidelines, which is to limit the area of land granted to individual property developers, for instance, to 40,000 sq meters.

As for the established old compounds, Yang said it is possible to take steps to open up the absolute realms. First, cities could gradually allow pedestrians to pass through the public roads, and then to the bike riders.

Yang said, thus, the utility of roads will be improved, which will help to improve urban functions and patterns.

However, many netizens have expressed their doubt over the new policy, questioning wether or not to open up encircled residences would help curb traffic congestion. Some of them also suggest more serious consequences on public safety and disturbance brought forward by the policy.

An online survey by Sohu.com shows that more than 56 percent of netizens strongly oppose the policy.

One respondent said that such highlight in the guideline might violate the country's property law, since the apartment owners have often paid for the roads and paths in the communities when they purchase the apartments.

Author： 　　　Source：CRI　　　 Editor：Yang Fan