URBAN PLANNING AND TRANSPORTATION OF CHINA (SHANGHAI)

TRANSPORT IN SHANGHAI

Shanghai has an extensive public transport system, largely based on buses, trolley buses, taxis, and a rapidly expanding metro system. Shanghai has invested heavily in public transportation before and after the 2010 World Expo, including the construction of the Hongqiao Transportation Hub of high-speed rail, air, metro and bus routes.

All public transport can be paid for using the contactless Shanghai public transport card.

The Shanghai Metro rapid-transit system and elevated light metro has twelve lines (numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9,10, 11 and 13) and extends to every core urban district as well as neighbouring suburban districts such as Songjiang and Minhang. Several other lines are under construction. It is one of the longest and fastest-growing systems in the world - the first line opened in just 1995.

Shanghai has one of the world's most extensive bus systems with nearly one thousand bus lines, operated by numerous transportation companies. Not all of Shanghai's bus routes are numbered - some have names exclusively in Chinese. Bus fares are usually ¥1, ¥1.5 or ¥2, sometimes higher, while Metro fares run from ¥3 to ¥11 depending on distance.

Taxi fare is regulated by Shanghai Government at rate ¥2.40/km or ¥3.10/km after 23:00. (¥14.00 for the first 3 km, ¥18.00 after 23:00).

Urban expressways in Shanghai during peak hours,  face congested traffic over 15 percent to 25 percent of their route. The average vehicle speed on main roads in rush hours in Shanghai is only 15 to 16 kilometers per hour

URBAN PLANNING IN SHANGHAI

During the past decade, Shanghai underwent a dramatic change in its city form and other urban characteristics. With more than 20 million people packed into fixed municipal boundaries, the population density of Shanghai reached 3,030 people per square kilometre in 2009, up by 19.5 per cent from 2000. This indicator rises to 16,000–44,000 people per square kilometre in central Shanghai, making the city one of the most crowded megacities in the world. While this level of human density used to be associated with dense industrial activities, especially in the central city, Shanghai has gradually moved away from manufacturing and has been enlarging its service sector. Over the past two decades it has relocated many of its factories to its outlying areas and neighbouring provinces. 

With almost 90 per cent of its population living in officially defined urban areas within its municipal boundaries, Shanghai has the highest level of urbanisation among all large cities in China. The ‘greying’ of Shanghai, pre-maturely relative to China’s overall development (getting old before getting rich), is associated with and reflected in the city’s changing pattern of diseases, especially those leading causes of death. Since the composition of diseases has a direct bearing on health and well-being in a dense urban environment, understanding the transition of disease pattern in connection to rapid urban restructuring in Shanghai provides valuable insights into what we can expect for other large and dense cities in China and beyond.

As Shanghai has been leading all Chinese cities in building skyscrapers, creating wealth and raising the standard of living, the challenge of making the city healthier has risen to the fore and will continue to stay high on the policy agenda. 

Charmaine's Reflection on the dilemma

  In my opininon, i think that China is a developing country and that it is normal for China to compete to be the best. And we can see that China is developing very fast because it is one of the highest economy in the whole world. 

 China can produce multiple products because China itself is a really big country with a large amount of land and population. Thus, China is able to build many factories and have the manpower to work at the factories to manufacture the products. However, these products contribute a whole lot to the greenhouse gases which causes global warming as it pollutes the air. This causes major problems to our environment and causes health problem. Especially to people with respiratory problems.

 I think China should think of ways to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases that is emited into the air. Since China needs the factories to develop their county even more, maybe they can cut down on having their own private cars and use the public transport instead. And use natural energy, like solar power or windmills. And now that technology is so advanced, more of energy saving products have been produced. Such as the solar powered plane, electric car and etc. China can use these products to reduce the greenhouse gases emission. And China can also reinforce on recycling so that paper for example, can be reused so that less trees will be cut down for the production of paper. Trees help us to take in carbon dioxide. Which is one of the greenhouse gases. If the trees were to be cut down, their will be lesser trees to take in carbon dioxide for us and give out the oxygen we need to breathe and survive. So another way that China can reduce the greenhouse gases emission is to also help reinforce the idea of recycling to their people. Also China can educate their people on power saving so that energy is saved and this less fossil fuel is being used up. They can use power saving bulbs, switch off lights whenever not in use and Etc. These small acts can help a lot in reducing the greenhouse gases emission. 

 I feel that it is not wrong of China to be competitive because everyone wants to be the most well known country and be the coolest as compared to the rest but they should also try to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases that is released into the air so that they can take care of their own people's health since they are closest to the factories and thus will be affected the most then the rest of the world. 

Yuan Lin's reflection on China's dilemma

  In my own opininon, i think that China is a developing country. It is normal for China to try to compete for the best. China is developing very fast as its economy is one of the highest in the whole world. 

  China produces many goods. China has many lands which meant many factories. These factories contributes to greenhouse gases which caused the air to be polluted. This is a very serious matter to our environment. This is bad for health, i think China should find ways to reduce global warming, like cutting down on factories and more public transports with less cars. 

  Though there is might be no wrong for China to compete with other countries, China should cut down the emmision of greenhouse gases or else it will be too late.

Thaddeus reflection on China dilemma

China is a growing country and it is getting more and more developed in terms of economy. It has one of the highest economy in the world now, and it is has progressed quickly by the years.

With higher economic growth, China has of course produced many of the worlds products. There are many factories in China that produce these goods and thus, China has become very heavily industrialized, and especially in major cities with factories and industries like Beijing and Shenzhen. The air quality is very bad and polluted. Beijing's air quality is so bad that it is equal to breathing in 20 cigarettes when breathing the air there. However, we cannot simply put the blame to the country for destroying the environment. China has a very high economic growth and there will definitely be pollutions due to the emissions from the factories.

Personally, I feel that China should cut down on these pollutions by making sure every factory takes the right measure and does not "over pollute" . Some factories even pour the excess waste into the nearby rivers, this causes the whole environment to be polluted. If the factories can cut down on these waste, I think China will not have such a big problem of pollution. 

Yixuan reflection

My opinions on whether china should give up on developing and stop global warming. 

Personally, I feel that it is normal for a country to want to be better than other countries like how we compare ourselves with others and want to be superior and better than them. Hence I understand why China wants to develop and become a developed country. However when it's developing, it starts to hav more factories and industries, which leads to more emission of greenhouse gases like carbon monoxide.nChina is very very big and if each factory feel that it's ok to emit carbon monoxide into the air as they are just a small factory and it won't affect much, when all the greenhouse gases emitted by all the factories, it isn't just a small amount anymore as the Chinese saying goes 积少成多. A bit from each factory brings global warming to a whole new level. 

Developing a country it's just about the process, there is also the effects. After developing the county, the citizens there would most probably travel around using cars instead of walking. There will also be more shopping malls. Who would want to shop in a hot mall right, so there will of course be the air conditional. Air conditionals also contribute to the amount of green house gases in the atmosphere. Not only these, people would also starting more plastic bags. 

If China becomes a developed country, it would definitely contribute a lot to global warming and the process of developing it also contributes a lot to global warming. If in the process of developing the country, the country's air pollution becomes really really bad? Would the people still enjoy being in a developed country? And what will happen to the health of the people living there. 

Hence, I feel that china should slow down it's developing rate and help to save the earth. When earth dies, there's no point in being a developed country anymore.

-Yixuan(17) 

Chloe's Reflection on China dilemma

China is a developing country today, with a goal of becoming a developed country. 

I personally would not blame them for pursuing higher economic growth as all developing countries must go through such a process in order to achieve being a developed country. On the other hand, if they do this, the rate of pollution would be escalating due to the industrialization, causing a higher rate of global warming. 

Making a decision between these two important factors is not an easy job. The decision made would either affect China, herself or the future of the world. If I am in a position to decide, I would be clueless as the consequences of my decisions would cause a negative impact to the other party. However, I think I would come to the conclusion by choosing the latter solution. I would decrease the number of industries built in China to decrease carbon dioxide emission to the surrounding atmosphere, in hope that this would able to decrease the rate of global warming all over the world. 

Being a developed country can be achieved in the future, lead by our future generations. However, there would be no turn back if we do not stop global warming now, at our generation. We should help out as much as possible now, before it is all too late. 

Therefore, I personally feel that China's dilemma between pursuing higher economic growth and escalating pollution due to the industrialization should be prevented and resolved by concentrating on the number of industries built and prevent as much carbon dioxide emission as possible released into the atmosphere.

Chloe Sim (5) 2G