Hong Kong and Guangzhou: Comparison for Patterns and Actors of Old City Transformation - 中欧社会论坛 - China Europa Forum

Hong Kong and Guangzhou: Comparison for Patterns and Actors of Old City Transformation

Authors: Xu Jianhua

Date: 2005, volume 25

Published by Sun Yatsen University Forum, issue No. 5, P174-179

This article makes a comparison between Guangzhou and Hong Kong for participating patterns and roles of different actors of old city transformation and thinks that old city transformation of Guangzhou must have a long-term plan and clear thread; the government cannot excessively intervene concrete works of old city transformation; the measures taken by the Urban Renewal Authority of Hong Kong should be used for reference; evaluation on social influence should be performed before old city transformation to provide residents a legal channel for opinion expression; and also Guangzhou can consider to launch the works of service team in the area of old city transformation to safeguard legal interests and rights of residents and keep the society stable.

Old city transformation is an eternal topic of urban construction. This article makes a comparison between Guangzhou and Hong Kong for the participating patterns and roles of different actors including government, development unit, resident and social worker etc. in the process of old city transformation, and on this basis, the article also puts forward the experiences of Hong Kong in old city transformation that should be used for reference by Guangzhou and even the whole mainland. After having analyzed historical background of old city transformation of the two cities, the author starts to make a comparison between Hong Kong and Guangzhou for the differences of the patterns of old city transformation, concretely including the following aspects:

1、On transformation plan, Hong Kong has a long-term plan, and to the contrary, Guangzhou has no any long-term plan for old city transformation. 2、On transformation thread, Hong Kong adopts an overall and comprehensive mode, which is a comprehensive renewal pattern, but the initial thread of Guangzhou for old city transformation is integrative transformation, which is changed into infrastructure construction as the carrier to implement transformation of involved areas regardless of other areas after such thread has encountered frustration. 3、On land supply, land in Hong Kong is very precious to the extent that an inch of land is as expensive as an ounce of gold, but land in Guangzhou is under the state of unlimited supply.

The author further makes a comparison between both cities for the roles played by actors involved in the process of old city transformation, it can be divided into the following aspects: 1、On the roles played by the governments, Guangzhou is involved in to high extent, and Hong Kong is involved in to low extent. 2 、Development units in Guangzhou is closely related to the government, but development units in Hong Kong is under independent development. 3 、On protection for interests and rights of residents, Hong Kong government follows the “human-based” idea, and Guangzhou government advocates to “give priority to social benefit:”; there exists legal channel for the residents in Hong Kong to participate in old city transformation, but in Guangzhou, the residents’ participation is defined as an unexpected “disturbance”; as for the evaluation on social influence of old city transformation, Hong Kong government voluntarily and actively performs the evaluation, and Guangzhou government adopts the passive and inactive mode; for the approach and mode for land acquisition, Hong Kong carries out the system of land expropriation through negotiation, and Guangzhou adopts the system of compulsory land expropriation. 4、In old city transformation, residents are often behaved as the weak group in need of external assistance to reduce the negative influence of old city transformation on themselves, here, social workers can play an important role. Social work of Hong Kong is quite developed, so the residents of house removal can obtain prompt and effective assistance, but Guangzhou has no professional social worker so that the residents sometimes feel helpless.

In brief, in the process of old city transformation and removal, it is necessary for Guangzhou and the whole mainland to absorb and learn the experiences of Hong Kong for the purpose of stabilizing the society and safeguard interests and rights of residents.

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