十年祭报道----纽约时报：中国未来都市范本

鸟鸟爱装嫩

中新网纽约6月1日电  今天出版的《纽约时报》在国际版刊登文章说，重庆已经是中国内陆地区最大的都市，但在未来十年或更长一点的时间里，更大的追求会刺激重庆设法跟上海、北京争夺“全国最大的城市”的头衔。 　　

文章说：在这个巨大的城市，看到满是公寓的山丘，你可能会想起香港，这里密集的人口会让你想起东京，还有那些横跨长江两岸、如同布鲁克林大桥的工程，可能还会让你想到纽约。

　　文章用“巨人般的”、“水泥森林”、“一千二百万人口”这样的词句来描述重庆，并认为它将是中国未来都市的范本。这篇报道被放在周五国际版A15的头条位置。报道配发了一张江北区一个建设工地的巨幅照片，反应这个城市正在迅速地成长。文章说：在重庆，到处可见新的 高速公路、新的大桥、拔地而起的高楼，很多时候，新的景象到不会让你感到惊奇，反而是很偶然地见到城市旧貌的痕迹时，你会吃惊。

　　文章认为：中国过去也曾建设了许多大的都市，比如从中国北部的天津到南部的深圳，但这些都市都集中在中国东部富裕地区。但重庆迅速崛起是一种象征：北京正在花大力气试图使有着四分之三人口的内陆地区能享有东部的经济繁荣。 北京领导层已形成共识，要解决内地的贫困，就必须鼓励成千上万人选择城市。

　　文章说：中国的城市化道路被认为是消除贫困的一条路径。在一九七八年，只有百分之十八的中国人生活在城镇。但在二〇一〇年前，中国当局预计这个比例将增加至百分之五十。人口统计学家和很多其他的专家称之为人类历史上一次最大规模的移民。

　　文章说，一个接一个，中国内地的城市争先恐后地实行城镇化。但不论是从规模、目标或者改造的程度看，有着一千二百万人口的重庆都自成一格。伴随重庆经济成长，这个城市每年吸引约二十万人来到这里，相当于增加一个美国俄亥俄州的阿克伦(Akron)，或是佛罗里达州的奥兰多(Orlando)市的人口，且重庆仍没有停止城市化的步伐。

　　文章说：他们还在扩大城市的容量， 通过一个名为“一小时经济圈”的规划，他们迅速地将城市周边地区联系在一起。 重庆希望在未来五年内能够使大约二百万农村人口迁入距离市中心一小时车程的新城镇区，此后五年内再迁入两百万人。

　　文章也认为，庞大的人口迁移计划使重庆环境面临巨大的压力。重庆是一个以水运、钢铁、冶炼、  摩托车制造和汽车制造业为主的工业城市，环境污染一直困扰着这个城市，重庆计计划将制造大量  空气污染的大型钢铁厂移至郊区，也正拟定其他解决之道。一位环保人士表示：“去年冬天，你可以见到十天的蓝天白云，这在更早之前是见不到的”。不过这位环保人士也说，随着人口增加，城市环境压力也会越来越大。

　　这篇文章报道了一位从加拿大回到重庆的工作的赵姓女士，她坦率说选择回到重庆，因为她认为重庆比起其他地方有更多的机会。

　　这篇报道还配发了一张进城打工的农民的照片。文章说：在重庆，你可以看到成群结队的人，每天拿着根木棍，徘徊在城市的街道上，他们都在寻找临时搬运工作的机会，其他一部分的新重庆人则进入忙碌的建筑业。

　　文章报道：余海(音译)，一个长着娃娃脸的二十五岁男子，他今年四月份独自从家乡四川来到重庆，希望能赚到足够多的钱来帮助他家中已经七十岁但仍坚持田间劳作的父亲。“我的父亲干得很累”，住在工地附近余先生说，他的周围不乏刚从农村过来的民工。他说：“如果我能找到一份好工作，我会坚持下去”。余先生接着说“我为什么要回家？在家种地实在太闷了”。

[ 本帖最后由 鸟鸟爱装嫩 于 2007-6-2 21:12 编辑 ]

Mr.Big

yj

鸟鸟爱装嫩

Big, Gritty Chongqing, City of 12 Million, Is China’s Model for Future
CHONGQING, China — Stand in the right spot in this gigantic city and hills draped with apartment complexes can remind you of Hong Kong, the density of habitation will recall Tokyo and the river-spanning brawn, replete with an immense new structure over the Yangtze that echoes the Brooklyn Bridge, might recall New York.
Everywhere one looks here, there are new expressways, new bridges and towering new housing complexes rising, so many in fact that it is the occasional glimpse of something old, rather than the sight of anything new, that takes one’s breath away.
China has built megacities before, of course. The country’s rich east abounds with them, strung along the coast from Tianjin in the north to Shenzhen in the far south like so many pearls. But the swift rise of Chongqing represents a new departure: a major push by Beijing to spread the fruits of China’s economic boom to the country’s vast interior, home to three Chinese in four.
A consensus has emerged among Beijing’s leadership that the way to ease poverty in the interior is to encourage people by the tens of millions to abandon the land for the cities.
“This is the path every developed country has taken,” said Tang Jun, a sociologist at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. “To ask whether China wants urbanization is like asking whether a person needs to eat.”
In 1978, a mere 18 percent of Chinese lived in cities and towns. By 2010, the authorities estimate that 50 percent will, as part of what demographers and other experts say is the greatest migration in human history.
One after another, the big cities of the interior have eagerly entered the race to urbanize, with many openly brandishing the objective of becoming a “world city” within a few years. But whether judged by its size, its ambition or the scale of transformation, Chongqing, with its 12 million people, remains in a class by itself.
The city’s economic growth is drawing about 200,000 new residents a year, the equivalent of adding an Akron, Ohio, or an Orlando, Fla. But the city fathers are not content to stop there.
They are also expanding the city limits, rapidly incorporating adjacent rural areas under a scheme the city calls the “one-hour economy circle.” Under the plan, which is being emulated by other big inland cities, the city wants to move two million rural residents into newly urbanized areas within an hour’s driving distance from the city center within the next five years, and another two million in the five years after that.
As an inducement the city is enticing landholders to surrender their claims on their rural plots in exchange for prized urban residency permits that offer not only legal residence in a city, but also access to social services and benefits unavailable in rural areas.
Chongqing is already comfortably China’s biggest inland city, but within a decade or so, initiatives like these could push it into contention with Shanghai and Beijing for the title of the nation’s biggest city.
As with anything on this scale, the process has been full of hiccups, gigantic hiccups in some cases, all of which are on display almost every day here. One of the most obvious problems is the environment.
Even in a country full of grimly polluted places, Chongqing, whose economy is based on river transportation, steel, smelting and the manufacture of motorcycles and automotive spare parts, bears special mention. A haze hangs in the air even on good days, and for much of the rest of the year the city’s skyline simply disappears at any distance.
Chongqing plans to move a giant steel mill that belches smoke night and day from the city center to the outskirts and has undertaken other measures to improve air quality, which residents say have begun to produce limited results.
“For 10 days this winter you could see clear blue skies and white clouds, which is something that didn’t exist in previous winters,” said Wu Dengming, leader of a local environmental group called the Green Volunteer League.
But asked about the future, given the rapid population growth, Mr. Wu sounded markedly more pessimistic. “There are more and more pressures on the environment, and the population is the main reason,” he said. “More people means more consumption, more production and more waste.”
Increasingly the city’s expansion is attracting people who might otherwise have migrated to the east or beyond. Yun Zhao, 31, a bright woman who works in a large insurance company here, was drawn back here after studying in Toronto and becoming a legal resident of Canada, something that has long been close to an irresistible dream for many Chinese.
“I grew up in Chongqing, but now when I go to other districts to meet friends, I wouldn’t recognize them as part of Chongqing unless someone told me,” Ms. Yun said. Asked why she had decided to come back, she was categorical. “There are more opportunities here than abroad,” she said.
But if the creation of giant new cities like this was intended to alleviate the poverty of rural migrants, the results so far have been mixed. Many thousands of people arrive here chasing a dream they seem unlikely ever to catch.
Those Chongqing newcomers can be seen in droves, trudging through the city’s streets with lengths of stout bamboo looking for casual work as old-fashioned porters. Others are drawn by the lure of regular work in the booming construction industry, but the supply of laborers far outstrips the demand.
Yu Hai, a 25-year-old man with the face of a teenager, arrived alone from his village in Sichuan Province in April, hoping to earn enough money to help his father, who is 70 but still farms the family’s small plot of wheat, potatoes and rice.
“My father is a hard worker,” Mr. Yu said, speaking in a run-down neighborhood that is full of recent arrivals. “I tell him to have fun for a day, but he doesn’t know how.”
“If I can find a good job, I’ll stick to it,” Mr. Yu continued, setting his goal at about $125 a month. “Why would I go home? It’s too tedious to work the land.”