Home » Feature » Health and Environment
New Tianjin eco-city boasts 5,000 residents
Print Edition
Tianjin Eco-City, the best-known eco-city project in China, has 6,000 residents as well as 5,000 workers five years after its first stage opened, according to the developer.
The environment-friendly city will be able to accommodate as many as 350,000 people when it is fully completed in 2020, said Ho Tong Yen, chief executive officer of the developer, Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-city Investment and Development Co Ltd.
Ho said he has started to see long queues at canteens for lunch.
“The place is becoming livelier day by day. Now we have some 4,000 people working there and some 6,000 residents, including employees of companies on site and the local government.”
He said there’s no target number for the future population near the coastal metropolis of Tianjin.
Tianjin Eco-City is the result of a joint proposal in 2007 by then Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Singapore’s former Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong to build a city that is socially harmonious, environmentally friendly, resource-efficient and a model for sustainable development.
Unlike most eco-cities in the world, which are usually small pilot projects, the eco-city, 40km from Tianjin, is planned as a fully fledged city on 30 square kilometers.
Forty percent of the land is planned for residential use, 10 percent for sustainable industries and three percent for commercial use. The rest is for administrative use, public services, open space and green space.
According to Ho, 8 square kilometers have been developed but not all of them are occupied since many lots are reserved for future use.
Though still a fledgling town, the Tianjin Eco-City is considered quite close to the concept of an ecological city envisioned by American author Richard Register.
According to the blueprint, the city will include green spaces, restored wetlands, eco-valley, bicycle tracks, wine turbines, skating park, international school, kindergarten and office buildings.
Before its development, the site was barren land that included salt beds, polluted water and a 2.6 square kilometer wastewater pond.
Around 1,000 companies are registered in the new city and Ho said he expects more when a light rail system is completed.
The city has a golf course, abundant greenery and open space to encourage people to walk.
“It’s like seeing a baby growing up,” said Ho, who took over as CEO of the joint venture in 2010.
The city has a set of 22 quantitative and four qualitative indicators covering many aspects of sustainable development and all buildings will have meet green construction standards, he said.
For example, one of the schools contains a wall that indicates the amount of energy consumed by the building so children will have actual experience in sustainable living.
The emphasis will change as the city evolves, Ho said. Moving from design to technologies to policies and eventually to advocating changes in lifestyle and more sustainable living as more people move in.
The city most closely resembles Tampines, a new town in Singapore, he said.
On the surface, it seems much like other cities, until people look into the details, such as construction materials and technologies.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
