Citizens are immersed in the autumn sea of flowers in Haizhu Lake .
Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering He Jingtang spoke at the meeting.
Building No. 5 Studio
Edition text/Guangzhou Daily All-Media Reporter Fang Qing and Yang Chaolu
Edition map/Guangzhou Daily All-Media Reporter Chen Youzi
City, so it is the prosperity of the people; the people are the foundation of the city. Throughout history, the original intention and ultimate destination of urban construction have been for people. How can Chinese cities with a population of more than 800 million achieve high-quality development, modern governance and organic renewal so that people can feel more and more happy, more full and more sustainable?
html On September 23, the 2022 China Happy City Governance Forum was held in Nansha, Guangzhou, and announced the launch of the 2022 China's happiest city survey and selection activity. At the forum, urban managers and experts and scholars from all over the country discussed cities and happiness around exploring the "greatest common divisor of happiness" and different "happiness codes" in different places, and shared the governance experience and paths of Chinese cities.Happy City Survey and Selection Event has been held for 15 consecutive years, attracting more and more cities and citizens across the country to participate and becoming an important brand for the creation of a happy city. The 2022 survey and selection activities were conducted through big data collection, questionnaire surveys, material declaration, field research, expert review and other methods. The event organizing committee comprehensively compiled the list of the happiest cities in China in previous years, combined with the preliminary screening results of big data, and determined the list of candidate cities for "China's happiest cities in 2022", including 100 cities (except municipalities directly under the central government) and 100 county-level cities (districts) such as Taicang, Jiangsu. The list of recommendation results will be released in December.
Think about the fundamentals of a happy city:
"The people are the greatest confidence to govern the city and develop the city"
"The core of the city is people, and the people are the greatest confidence to develop the city." At the forum, Xinhua News Agency Deputy President Yuan Bingzhong shared thoughts on the construction and governance of happy cities. "The people need a higher quality of life, participate in social governance more in an orderly manner, and feel the warmth of the city more effectively. In the development of the city, cities should respond to the people's new expectations with more optimized space, more perfect functions, and higher quality development."
He analyzed the "change and unchange" over the years: happiness can be thousands of cities, but the background color of a happy city is also highly unified: livable, innovative, smart, green, humanistic, and resilience. "Entering the new era, if Chinese cities want to achieve high-quality development, they must place ecological protection in a more prominent position," said Yuan Bingzhong. In addition, urban development should not only integrate the current picture of the times, but also protect the historical context. What is even more gratifying is that in recent years, more and more cities have adhered to the people-first governance concept, bent down for children, slowed down for the elderly, rushed in both directions with young people, and became more friendly to women, responding to the inner desires of different groups living in the city.
The way to build a happy city:
"Satisfies people's yearning for a better life"
Starting from the personal experience of living in the western suburbs of Beijing, Xu Weixin, vice president of the National Innovation and Development Strategy Research Association and former vice president of the Central Party School, shared his thoughts.
How to build a happy city? Xu Weixin believes that, first, we must understand and reflect the important conclusion that socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new era, and second, we should pay attention to with Chinese characteristics. "The fundamental purpose of building a happy city is to meet people's yearning for a better life. People's needs are the needs of cities." Therefore, the construction of a happy city should ensure people's livelihood, especially safety and employment, while meeting and leading people's growth and development requirements, and promoting people's modernization.
Focus on the host city of the forum. How should Guangzhou achieve new vitality in the old city? Xu Weixin believes that this requires urban builders and managers to explore new footholds in urban development and governance from the perspective of history and culture, organically combine the modernization of the city with the city's history, original style and cultural characteristics, improve urban cultivation, and allow residents to have a sense of belonging and cultural resonance."Guangzhou uses 'embroidery' to update the pattern and mechanism of the old city, and continues the historical context and characteristic style of the city, making this old city with a history of more than 2,200 years full of fashion, historical and fireworks. The old city has achieved remarkable results."
Guangzhou's consecutive honors password:
People-centered, development is warm, happiness and texture
As one of the cities that have continuously won the honor of "the most happiest city", Guangzhou has been running and moving forward and continuing to struggle on the road to happiness. The happiness here is a poetic ecology surrounded by rivers and seas, a prosperous city with bustling traffic and buildings, a pastoral scenery with fragrant rice flowers and curling smoke from cooking stoves, a cultural heritage that lasts for more than 2,200 years, and an era vitality of the city's new axis. At the
forum, a relevant person in charge of the Propaganda Department of the Guangzhou Municipal Party Committee shared that Guangzhou adheres to the people-centered approach and gives full play to the advantages of ecology, culture, industry, human settlements, etc., so that more than 20 million citizens can jointly build, govern and share a "happy home", and truly feel the warmth of development and the texture of happiness.
Guangzhou’s happiness comes from its ever-increasing comprehensive strength - the total economic output exceeds 2.8 trillion yuan, and the per capita disposable income of urban and rural residents increased by 7.9% and 10% per year. Here we have gathered talents and rich resources. We have excellent global enterprises such as Southern Power Grid , China Southern Airlines , GAC Group , and other foreign exchange and cooperation platforms such as Canton Fair , Understanding China, Congdu Forum, and have a broad stage for striving to realize our dreams and a fertile ground for investment and innovation. The achievements of development and reform are benefiting every Guangzhou people.
Guangzhou’s happiness comes from its profound cultural heritage. As the birthplace of the Maritime Silk Road, the source of modern and modern Chinese revolution, and the center of Lingnan Culture, Guangzhou has been in a long cultural heritage and cultural prosperity for more than 2,200 years, making the sense of happiness more deeply rooted in the bone marrow and the hearts of the people. , the top ten opera houses in the world, , Guangzhou Grand Theater , , Guangzhou Library , children's library, urban "10-minute cultural circle" and rural "10-mile cultural circle". High-quality cultural supply also nourishes every Guangzhou people.
The happiness of Guangzhou comes from the beautiful ecological environment - the pearls and waters pass through the city, forests siege, green roads circling the city, and the four-season flower city, allowing people to "live poetically" in the city. In promoting the governance of megacities and ecological environment protection, Guangzhou has carried out micro-renovation of old communities with the effort of "embroidery". The average concentration of PM2.5 remains the best in national central city , and has built 1,200 parks of various types and 3,821 kilometers of green paths of , with the highest per capita green space area in the country. With the establishment of South China National Botanical Garden in Guangzhou, a more beautiful and vivid urban picture is slowly unfolding.
Guangzhou’s happiness also comes from the continuous cultivation of people’s livelihood and welfare - adhere to the people’s dominance and respond to citizens’ yearning for a better life with high-quality “Cantonese life”. In order to improve people's livelihood, Guangzhou completes ten practical things for people's livelihood on time and with quality every year. The three projects of "Cantonese Cuisine", "Guangdong Technician", and " Nanyue Housekeeping" have achieved remarkable results. The experience in building a basic elderly care service system has been promoted nationwide. National Respiratory Medicine Center and National Children's Regional Medical Center have been listed, and the average life expectancy has been increased to 82.9 years, putting people's sense of happiness in a deeper and more practical way.
Exclusive interview with He Jingtang, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering:
makes Pearl River the two sides of the strait become a place for ordinary people’s activities
How to satisfy people’s yearning for a better life through architecture? Guangzhou has achieved new vitality in old cities, especially in the transformation of old cities, how should we grasp the relationship between "new and old"? On September 23, at the 2022 China Happy Urban Governance Forum, He Jingtang, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, accepted an exclusive interview with a reporter from Guangzhou Daily. He emphasized that cities are the people's cities, cities should serve the people everywhere, and the front lines of the Pearl River should become places for people to engage in activities and exchanges.
In his keynote speech, He Jingtang said that the core of a city is people, and urban construction must adhere to the people-centered development concept. Culture is the soul of the city and the foundation on which the city relies for its continuation and development. The style and taste of urban construction reflect the characteristics, quality, pursuit and development of a city.
Guangzhou Daily: Please comment on Guangzhou’s architectural and urban development in recent years. How should the people’s yearning for a better life be met through architectural and urban construction in the future?
He Jingtang: People come to the city just to live, and stay in the city just to live a better life. Urban construction involves all aspects, and has influences on politics, economy, culture and science and technology. In order to make the city better, Guangzhou has done a lot of work in recent years. Now many buildings not only meet people's use requirements, but also give people a beautiful enjoyment.
is like the Baietan Greater Bay Area Art Center we designed. It was originally called "Three Museums Integration", which brings together Guangdong Art Museum , Guangdong Literature Museum and Guangdong Intangible Cultural Heritage Exhibition Center, like a giant ship full of Lingnan culture from history to present to future. We hope to promote Lingnan culture and , Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area , communication with the whole country and the world through this building, and it is estimated that it will be open around August next year.
Guangzhou is a city with mountains and rivers, so it pays great attention to high-quality development along the Pearl River, the improvement, transformation and revitalization of the two sides of the Taiwan Strait. The relevant planning work involves the Pearl River waterway length of about 100 kilometers. We emphasize that front-line places must be handed over to the people to become public places for urban activities. In the past, we have built a lot of houses on both sides of the Pearl River. Of course, the people who live in it have a good feeling, but others use it less. Cities are the people's city, and cities should be for the people everywhere. So now we pay special attention to the front line of the Pearl River that not only maintains a good ecological environment, but also becomes a place for people to engage in activities and exchanges.
Another thing to emphasize is that culture is the soul of the city, and urban competition is ultimately about culture, because culture affects people's lives and sentiments. To improve the quality of the city, cultural expression in architecture plays a very important role.
comprehensively says that culture, ecological environment, modern lifestyle, and modern science and technology are all important factors in urban development. Guangzhou is working hard in these directions. The most important thing is to put people at the center and make people feel a sense of gain, happiness and security.
Guangzhou Daily: Do you think Guangzhou should make new achievements in realizing new vitality in old cities, especially in the transformation of old cities?
He Jingtang: To achieve new vitality in the old city, we pay special attention to the two axes of Guangzhou. The first is the traditional central axis of Guangzhou, from Yuexiushan , Zhongshan Memorial Hall, People's Park to Haizhu Square . This axis is the root of Guangzhou's history and is also a witness to Guangzhou's development as a commercial city, so we must build this traditional central axis well.
also has another focus on Cultural Park and Southern Building . The Thirteen-Line Museum here is also to extend the historical and cultural characteristics of Guangzhou as a commercial city. Then we went to the Baietan Greater Bay Area Art Center mentioned just now, and we completely combined the old city with modern functions. The new vitality of old cities is to protect the ancient buildings in Guangzhou, protect their authenticity, protect the original appearance of the historical area, and extend the characteristics of this style in the newly built buildings. This is what we need to do.
