Ji'an City: Exploring a "People-Centered" Sustainable Urban Renewal Model

Renovation and Reconstruction of Nanmen Old Street in Yongxin County

 

 

The recently held Central Urban Work Conference emphasized building innovative, livable, beautiful, resilient, civilized, and smart modern people's cities. Ji'an City in Jiangxi Province thoroughly implements General Secretary Xi Jinping's important discourse on urban work, deeply practices the concept of people-centered cities, and in the implementation of the "Ten Major Battles" including key reform breakthroughs and key livelihood quality improvements, led by the Municipal Party Secretary, explores and promotes a "people-centered" sustainable urban renewal reform. This approach focuses on the people as the main body, projects as the traction, and small-scale, micro-renewal, and refined enhancement as the means, emphasizing "starting from the environment around the people," promoting urban structure optimization, kinetic energy transformation, quality improvement, green transformation, cultural continuity, and governance efficiency, making the "happiness at the doorstep" more tangible and accessible to the people. So far, the city has completed the renovation of 791 old residential communities, benefiting 212,500 households; implemented shantytown renovation covering 10.15 million square meters, resettling 101,500 households; carried out 106 micro-renewal projects on idle land in the city center, built 48 new ecological parking lots, and added 36 "pocket parks + micro-commerce" and "community parks + leisure squares," gradually unfolding a convenient, beneficial, and secure people's city picture in Luling land.

Establishing a Collaborative Mechanism of "Participating Entities + Responsible Entities" for Projects

Adhering to integrating the people's perspective throughout the entire urban renewal process and all aspects, breaking through the government's all-encompassing approach, streamlining the collaboration among government, enterprises, and the people, ensuring that the people's voices carry weight, participation is empowered, and supervision is effective.

Volunteers guiding the public to place orders on the Fuguanjia platform

 

 

Micro-renewal project on idle land organizing surrounding residents to fill out questionnaires

 

 

People as the masters to ask for needs. Deeply practicing the mass line in urban inspections by distributing questionnaires, opening the "12345" government hotline, and conducting forums and exchanges to collect public opinions and renovation suggestions through multiple channels and all-round approaches, generating a "demand list." Focusing on four dimensions—housing, community, block, and urban area—with 14 sections and 69 problem indicators, extracting over 5,800 valid resident questionnaires and processing 188,000 government hotline data entries, resulting in 120 public suggestion projects.

Experts assisting in consultation. Adhering to planning guidance and design direction, inviting the China Academy of Urban Planning and Design and Jiangxi Provincial Institute of Human Settlements to organize the preparation of special urban renewal plans, scientifically setting planning indicators and delineating urban renewal units. Establishing a resident "order-based" renovation mechanism, fully integrating public opinions into urban renewal planning, design, and implementation plans, promoting urban renewal that meets public needs and suits people's livelihoods.

Government coordinating consultation. Formulating urban renewal management measures, focusing on the "planning and design—construction implementation—renewal utilization—operation and maintenance" stages, issuing policies such as project land supply, integrated regional development and operation, and floor area ratio compensation, providing policy support for various entities participating in urban renewal.

Social supervision for effectiveness. Establishing a normalized supervision mechanism with residents as the main body, forming renovation councils to continuously follow up on the entire process of design, material selection, and construction of renewal projects. Posting public notice boards at each renewal project site, displaying renovation content, project leaders from construction units, community grid staff, street people's congress committee contact persons, and feedback channels. Establishing a "double evaluation" mechanism for urban renewal, with communities distributing questionnaires door-to-door for evaluation, and the Municipal People's Congress organizing representatives to conduct satisfaction assessments. Among 2,358 anonymous questionnaires distributed for micro-renewal projects on idle land in the city center, public satisfaction reached 99.96%.

Exploring a win-win model of "public welfare + marketization" for projects

Adhering to putting people's interests first and reflecting them in all stages of urban renewal construction, operation, and governance, highlighting public welfare to enhance people's sense of gain, while emphasizing marketization to achieve project sustainability.

Public welfare guarantee and residents' autonomous relocation. Through residents' "voluntary application for relocation, physical resettlement elsewhere, repurchase and leaseback on the original site, and on-site renewal and reconstruction," integrating dilapidated and scattered plots for unified acquisition and planning, prioritizing the filling of public service facilities and infrastructure gaps in old neighborhoods, communities, and urban villages, achieving "benefits for those who move out and gains for those who stay."

Area coordination and spot renewal construction. Focusing on starting small and working practically, dividing area units for urban renewal, promoting refined renovation at key nodes, enhancing urban quality with techniques like "patching" and "embroidery," enriching residents' life experiences.

Historical and Cultural District Protection and Renewal Project of Xiaxifang in Yongfeng County

 

 

Market orientation and business format introduction and operation. Identifying the balance point among investors, operators, and residents' interests in urban renewal projects, coordinating environmental remediation, business introduction, and operation maintenance to achieve benefits for government, enterprises, and the people.

State-owned capital platform and private enterprise participation in management. Establishing a full-chain cooperation model of "planning—investment—construction—management" for urban renewal projects, leveraging state-owned enterprise platform resources integration and credit advantages, as well as private enterprises' business attraction, brand incubation, and commercial management strengths, transforming government subsidies into market-driven vitality through risk sharing and profit sharing.

Expanding the empowerment system of "cultural heritage + texture regeneration" for projects

Adhering to enhancing people's intrinsic motivation and improving people's well-being as the starting and ending point of urban renewal, focusing on both "appearance" and "substance," integrating culture, ecology, governance, and other elements into renewal projects to achieve a transformation from "physical renewal" to "systematic rejuvenation."

Wenta Area Renewal Project in Anfu County

 

 

Empowering the continuation of Luling cultural heritage. Highlighting culture as the soul, fully excavating the cultural heritage of Luling, strengthening the systematic protection and living inheritance of urban historical culture, preserving the city's unique regional environment, cultural characteristics, and architectural styles, and promoting deep integration of culture, commerce, and tourism through cultural event planning, embedding cultural imprints, and creating cultural atmospheres, allowing the city to continue its cultural lineage and residents to remember their hometown nostalgia.

Empowering grassroots governance innovation. Combining party-building-led grassroots governance with urban renewal, carrying out special actions of "home visits to listen to complaints and immediate handling," establishing three lists of "problems, needs, and resources," solving pain points such as lagging facility support, insufficient elderly-friendly levels, and weak governance effectiveness, promoting "coordinated development and mutual empowerment" of urban renewal and grassroots governance.

Shibakou Tang Area Renovation Project in Wan'an County

 

 

Empowering ecological space reconstruction. Persist in advancing mountain, water, and city management in an integrated manner, replacing large-scale demolition and construction with ecological methods, carrying out ecological protection and restoration, effectively revitalizing inefficient land, ecological "scars," and industrial "rust belts," following a green transformation path, and promoting cities to be more livable, business-friendly, and tourist-friendly.

Empower the development of smart cities. Integrate the achievements of more than 20 departments including public security, housing and urban-rural development, and urban management, connect over 80,000 video cameras and 460 million data entries, build a system-integrated, collaborative, and efficient urban brain central system to achieve "one view of the entire area, one network managing the whole city." Simultaneously promote the construction of intelligent security communities, create a comprehensive community intelligent "operation, management, and service" platform, making people's lives safer, more comfortable, and smarter.

The power of the people is the inexhaustible driving force for urban renewal. Today in Ji'an, the concept of a people-centered city is being vividly practiced across Luling land. By pooling collective wisdom and efforts to promote a "people-centered" sustainable urban renewal exploration, integrating the people-first concept into the entire process of urban construction and governance, adhering to the principles of people as the main body, livelihood as the main line, and sustainable operation, it has become a consensus and joint effort throughout Ji'an. As urban renewal practices deepen step by step, the understanding and experiences of cadres and the public are also increasingly profound.

Anfu County Qifengshan Mining Area Restoration and Renovation Project.

 

 

In urban renewal, people's livelihood is the main line, and the people-first concept must be deeply practiced. General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized, "The people build the city, and the city is for the people." The essence of urban renewal is "renewing for the people," with the starting point and destination both being the people. This requires adhering to a people-centered approach to promote urban renewal. In urban renewal practice, Ji'an City focuses on people-oriented principles, thoroughly implements the people-city concept, integrates the public perspective throughout the reform, emphasizes starting from the environment around the people, from idle and inefficient land, and from small public spaces, maximally integrating public needs, and implementing "one place, one policy" micro-renovations to let "small plots" produce "big benefits." Liu Yong, Party Secretary and Director of Ji'an Housing and Urban-Rural Development Bureau, said: "The process and mechanism we have created for urban renewal—from city health checks, land parcel surveys to project planning, implementation, and acceptance—each step involves public participation and supervision. It must be solid and genuine to withstand scrutiny from all sides."

Jishui County Shangxia Old Street Historical and Cultural District Protection and Renewal Project.

 

 

In urban renewal, the people are the main body, and mechanisms to fully utilize the role of the people must be improved. The Opinions on Continuously Promoting Urban Renewal Actions issued by the General Office of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council clarify the responsibilities and roles of the government, market, and the people in urban renewal, highlighting the people as a key subject. To promote high-quality urban renewal development, the most important thing is to integrate the people's main role throughout the entire urban renewal process, enabling the people to substantially participate in all aspects of urban construction and governance. Adhering to this concept, Ji'an City has carefully built a full-chain public participation mechanism of "survey and assessment—planning and design—organization and implementation—acceptance and evaluation—operation and maintenance," ensuring that surveys are self-reported by the people, renovation plans are chosen by the people, project implementation is supervised by the people, renovation results are evaluated by the people, and operation and maintenance involve the people. The people act as advisors, supervisors, and evaluators, substantially participating in all stages of urban renewal, thereby achieving remarkable results.

Jishui County Shangxia Old Street Historical and Cultural District Protection and Renewal Project.

 

 

Urban renewal values sustainability and must promote the organic integration of elements for renewal. The Central Urban Work Conference pointed out, "Insist on planning cities as organic living systems," thus it is necessary to promote urban renewal with a systematic perspective. In practice, Ji'an City focuses on relying on the power of the people, promoting the integration of funds, culture, business formats, ecology, governance, and other elements into renewal projects, which not only promotes multi-dimensional empowerment of projects but also ensures sustainability, achieving a transformation from "physical renewal" to "systematic rejuvenation." Yin Xinping, Deputy Secretary-General of the Ji'an Municipal Party Committee, Director of the Political Research Office, and Executive Deputy Director of the Reform Office, deeply remarked: "Ji'an's urban renewal practice fully demonstrates that the people are the true heroes. Once the wisdom and potential of public participation are unleashed, urban renewal actions will gain continuous vitality." For example: building a "cultural heritage + texture regeneration" empowerment system to protect the city's unique historical context, human geography, and natural landscape, promoting connotative urban development; exploring mechanisms for introducing business formats in urban renewal, attracting social capital or state-owned platform companies, and according to public willingness, adopting "self-operated + joint operation" and "low-cost + public welfare" methods to guide public participation in neighborhood commerce and public building operations, promoting sustainability; establishing a long-term urban renewal maintenance mechanism by deeply integrating urban renewal with grassroots governance, guiding public participation in post-renovation operation and maintenance; and so on. Through these reforms, Ji'an has effectively opened a fresh source of vitality for urban renewal development.

Original text can be found in "Urban and Rural Construction" 2025, Issue 15, pages 64-67.