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The historic quarter of Shanghai is threatened with demolition – International News News – Report by AFR

Bricked-up doors, crumbling facades and a small group of defiant locals: one of Shanghai’s oldest neighborhoods barely clings to life as the city presses ahead with demolition and redevelopment plans.

Laoximen, or “Old West Gate” — named for its position in Shanghai’s 16th-century defensive walls — was once the city’s cultural hub.

Built around the site of a Confucian temple, the mostly two- and three-story stone and wood buildings are an anachronism in the heart of Shanghai’s gleaming business district.

Thousands of residents — a mix of old Shanghai families and migrant workers drawn by the low rents — were ordered to vacate their homes in late 2017, though some still clung to the aging buildings years after the deadline.

Yang, who declined to give his full name, is one of the latest residents to have resisted government compensation and held on to his home in Laoximen, a damp maze of long corridors filled with old furniture and household appliances.

“This piece of land was bought by my grandfather,” Yang, whose family lived in the area before the Communist Party took power in 1949, told AFP.

Most of his neighbors have agreed to leave, but Yang is awaiting compensation, which he says would be “equal to the value of the house.”

– Compensation –

According to the local government, residents of Laoximen can get up to 20,000 yuan (US$2,962) per square meter, with early move bonuses.

However, according to real estate company Anjuke, the average second-hand apartment in Shanghai currently costs more than 55,000 yuan per square meter.

The final demolition was apparently delayed by the pandemic, but the excavators have resumed work after Shanghai emerged from lockdown earlier this year.

Where locals once ate at popular restaurants, large red-and-white signs on the walls are urging collaboration on redevelopment plans.

“Open, fair and equitable: promoting the redevelopment of the old town” can be read.

Doors and windows are sealed with cement blocks in the winding alleys, pockmarked with stacks of old chairs, boards and doors.

A short walk from Shanghai’s swanky Bund riverfront, Laoximen is one of thousands of aging neighborhoods in China to which residents have been resettled and the land reclaimed by the government in the name of regeneration and advancement.

Many of the houses in the neighborhood were older than modern building standards and lack heating or central plumbing.

Residents are usually offered new housing or a sum of money to give up their homes, although some redevelopment projects have sparked public anger and violent clashes in parts of the country.

Replacing Laoximen’s once densely packed lanes with larger, higher quality developments could also help the city meet its goal of limiting its population to 25 million by 2035.

Authorities announced the target in 2017 as part of a campaign to curb “big city diseases,” including congestion and housing shortages.

– ‘Public interest’ –

Wu Weigang, a retiree who grew up in the area with his extended family, has particularly fond memories of celebrating Chinese New Year in Laoximen as a child.

“Everyone set off fireworks and hung rabbit-shaped lanterns during the Lantern Festival,” he said.

Wu, who now lives two hours away in a makeshift apartment in Qingpu District, occasionally returns to Laoximen to revisit his old haunts and check in with neighbors.

Most of the buildings in Laoximen were built in the 20th century in the “shikumen” style of row houses arranged along branching lanes.

Antique dealers have been waiting outside family homes for the past few months to pick up heirlooms while families clear out their last belongings.

As night falls, the amber glow of streetlights enshrouds the enclave’s nearly deserted lanes, while the Oriental Pearl Tower glows in the distance.

Shanghai authorities say the area will be redeveloped to meet “the needs of the public interest.”

Wu hopes some of the old quarter’s charm will survive the redevelopment unscathed.

“They told me my home would be preserved,” Wu told AFP. “If it weren’t here I wouldn’t come to see it or I’d be so sad.”

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