"A perfect choice." That is how city planners refer to the proposed Expo site.
"In addition to traffic factors, the venue is the key area of Shanghai's reconstruction campaign ... which will minimize the impact the Expo has on residents and enterprises," said Yu Sijia, a section chief of Shanghai's Urban Planning Administration Bureau.
The Huangpu River has long been an important site. But it has also long been overlooked by the city's urban planners.
With the exception of the Bund, famous for its Western-style architecture built about 100 years ago, the Huangpu's potential has been untapped.
The Expo site, expected to enhance development in the area, will be a model of Shanghai's renovation.
Pollution-generating steel factories, ship makers, chemical plants, port machinery factories, vacant warehouses, shabby huts and rundown apartment buildings will be replaced by magnificent show halls and conference buildings and gardens.
The Huangpu will be restored.
Seventeen enterprises, most heavy polluters, are scheduled to either close or move outside the city.
The steel factories will be updated and relocated. The ship-making factory will move to the Chongming and Changxing islands.
Other buildings will either be demolished or renovated.
About 4,290 of the 34,400 employees are expected to retire within five years.
About 17,000 of the remaining workers will resume their careers within three years after their companies are relocated.
The government is expected to find jobs at the Expo site - as guards and gardeners - for the remaining 12,680 people.
An estimated 25,000 people, from 8,500 families, will be relocated to new housing if Shanghai is selected to host the Expo.
"Most of their houses are in poor condition, and have been listed for demolition," Yu said.
Lu Hongbao, responsible for one of the communities, said residents have been expecting for years to be relocated.
The residences will be demolished within five years.
"They just cannot wait to move," Lu said.
Developers are hesitant to assume control of the land, fearing the dense population could result in exorbitant relocation costs.
"We will be happy if Shanghai wins the bid, because it will surely shorten our wait to be relocated," said 72-year-old Tang Miaosheng, who has lived his life in a small house without washroom facilities.
"I don't want this to continue. I just hope I can move to a new apartment ... and see my grandchildren living in better conditions," Tang said.
Shanghai will purchase the residences at fair market value to help the families pay for their relocations, officials have said.
"We have solved relocation issues this way for many years. It has proved to be effective," said He Yaozu, with the Shanghai Municipal Housing, Land and Resources Administration Bureau.
The government has reserved housing in Pudong's Sanlin area, less than 8 kilometres away, for the residents.
Shanghai has established a US$1.44-billion relocation fund, said Huang Yaocheng, deputy director of Shanghai's Expo bidding office. "We can guarantee these residents will be rewarded with better housing for supporting the city's Expo bid," Huang said.
Shanghai officials in the past 10 years have relocated more than 1 million people to accommodate infrastructure construction and other development projects.
(China Daily October 18, 2002)
