Shanghai Plans Eco-metropolis on its Mudflats

Dongtan is hailed as the beginning of a neo-industrial revolution, a major development the Chinese are embarking on as a turning point in the country’s frenetic, unsustainable urban growth. The biggest and most ambitious project China has ever undertaken, even bigger than the Beijing 2008 Olympics, Dongtan apparently holds the potential to change the course of global economic development. Acting as a hopeful prototype for future urban development across the globe, its roots lie in China, the world’s most populous country.
Developers aim to produce a post-industrial sustainable city that poses no appreciable damage to the Earth’s environment. Self-sufficiency (utilising only renewable energy sources) will be implemented in many public sectors, buildings, food supply, medical care, and transport will be available only by hydrogen or electric cars. Employment will be light industrial and high technology.
Albeit a promising project, much criticism and controversy arises regarding Dongtan’s development on the silted estuary of the Yangtze river, Chongming Island. This is a geologically young area, growing 25 feet per year through silt deposition, currently supporting farmland and small communities of rural preasants and fishermen. Much produce cultivated in the region culminates in Shanghai, feeding the demanding population. The prospect of ruining this ecologically unspoilt area shocks many people, but directors ensure us that the developers have potential impact under control and long-term benefits will outweigh any short-term risks.
The Shanghai Industrial Investment Corporation (SIIC) is developing a million dollar prospectus, inviting private investors to the new eco-city. Dongtan may be the home to many international organisations, striving to increase environmental awareness. Many of the current population disagree with the trans-national corporations that may soon be located on their doorsteps.
Dongtan must comply with Chinese authorities, however. Conforming to the Chinese Business melange of Confucianism, Daoism and communism, one of Dongtan’s ultimate priorities is to ‘create inclusive, cohesive and tolerant communities that recognize traditional and modern Chinese and other cultural values’. The reality of Dongtan also largely lies in the synthesis of economic development, environmental responsibility and financial profitability.

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2006/jan/08/china.theobserver