CHINA'S CITY BOOM

China, the world's fastest growing economy with 1.3 billion population, has set out on and will step up rapid urbanization as the government believes urbanization is an inevitable trend as well as a strong boost to China's economic and social development.

Statistics show that by the end of 2009, China's urbanization rate reached 46.6 percent. It's estimated that another 400 million people from rural China will migrate to cities in the coming 20 years.

Some Chinese cities have started to taste the challenges while enjoying benefits amid fast urbanization. Traffic congestion is one of the most common problems in big cities as more people are flooding there for better life.

In Beijing, a record 140 traffic jams were observed on a Friday evening in September, extending a normally 15-minute commute to nearly two hours.

A McKinsey &Company research showed this month that China will have 10 large cities with population above 10 million each, including Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing, Tianjin, Hangzhou, Wuhan and Xi'an.

"The theme of the Expo is particularly relevant at a time when the majority of the planet's population is living in cities and while a large migration of the world's rural population is moving into the cities," Jean Pierre Lafon, President of the International Exhibitions Bureau, said.

The Shanghai Expo introduced the first-ever Urban Best Practices Area and Virtual Expo to illustrate the success stories of various countries in urban development and management with many cases and models, such as Japan's Osaka, China's Hangzhou, Czech's Prague and Spain's Madrid among others.

Leaders and experts agreed that the Expo would provide experience and guidance for cities to handle challenges and develop for the better.

These challenges must be tackled head on and technological advances offers solution, Jean Pierre Lafon said.

He warned that nothing can progress without the political will of all, saying "the declaration will only be worth the attention and follow-up that we all give to it".

The Expo, which opened on May 1 in Shanghai, drew the participation of 246 countries and international organizations, by far the largest number since the first World Expo was held in Britain in 1851.

It has attracted more than 73 million visitors, surpassing the targeted 70 million set by organizers and breaking the record of 64 million in 1970 Osaka World Expo in Japan.

Source: Xinhua

Editor: Liu Fang