Planning in Yangshuo

Tonight we met with a resident of Yangshuo who has some knowledge of city-building. Ian is an South African guy who has lived here for 6 years. In a previous life, he was an architect. He does tourism now. We were able to ask him questions and have an interesting discussion about regional planning, building construction, land ownership, governmental laws, building height, and historic preservation. Hing, Erika, and I decided to join forces and write a joint blog post to discuss what we learned tonight.

Tourism is a driving force in the development of Yangshuo. When Ian arrived, Yangshuo was a sleepy village with a few cafes and mainly a tourist destination for those living in China. It first became popular with Chinese tourists who were fascinated with the influence of western backpackers in the area. For people who have trouble getting to Hong Kong, this is the next best thing. Because of the boom in tourism over the last 5 years, money has been 'pouring out of this area', and he means this in a good way, as in, there is so much money here that the city cannot contain it all. An area of several blocks has been demolished to make way for the construction of a new complex of commercial and hotel uses.

There is no strict building code and enforcement system in China like that of what you would find in the United States. It might be comparable to a remote and unincorporated area of some rural counties in the States. Permits for construction are not enforced. People just build what they like, sometimes with the help of an ex-architect friend like Ian who draws up plans to help order supplies and guide the actual construction.

Land ownership is fuzzy as well. The government owns the land, but in urban areas you get and hold the right to use the land. People don't pay property taxes on rural land. In rural areas, every 5 to 7 years the government divides up the land in a region and redistributes it to the local population. If the population in a town has changed, one might receive more or less land. If you are rich, being nice to the mayor might influence the results of the redistribution.

In China, building height is regarded as a status symbol. It's a matter of "keeping up with the Chans." Frequently you will see farm land with a 4-story building with only a finished ground floor. The upper floors would be left as an unfinished shell because the family could not afford to finish them, but wanted the status symbol of a taller building. Even the height of your threshold is noticed and compared to the neighbors.

The government will supply your building with water and electricity if it is within the height limit, but the government uses utilities as a means of enforcing building heights. If a building taller than desired is constructed, the government would cut off all utilities and the building would be forced to become self sufficient. I can see that as almost being desirable, in that you get the height you want and you are free of the government's golden handcuffs. Government-subsidized utilities are cheap, though, a single-person household can run on 4 RMB (US 50 cents) for water and 25 RMB for electricity per month.

The government has recently changed the laws regarding eminent domain (what superpower hasn't?). Previously, the government was able to take land from anyone with a week's notice to use for any purpose. In the past few years law has changed to only allow the government to take land from residents for public projects and infrastructure. However, when tourism picked up in the Yangshuo region (oh, right, we were talking about China), the government realized it could take a cut of the profits made from the bamboo raft tours and made a new law that prohibited development along the Yulong River. Shortly thereafter, all of the existing cafes and guesthouses were given a 1-week notice prior to demolition.

In China, people would rather live in modern homes than older ones and don't place the same value on older structures as our culture does. Often an older building is demolished and a new identical building is constructed in its place.