China continues to amaze me. By 9 am today we were moving at 350 km/hr on a bullet train from Beijing to Tianjin, part of a quick 100-mile trip on the high-speed rail, about the same distance as it is from New York to Hartford, CT. It took us 30 minutes to get to Tianjin, the fourth city on our journey to the Far East.
After yet another delicious dumpling lunch, we arrived at the Tianjin Eco City. First, the facts. The Tianjin Eco City is essentially a sustainable development project that is a joint venture between the Chinese and Singapore governments. 2008 marked the beginning of this joint venture, and the first start up area is scheduled to be finished by 2013, being able to accommodate up to 100,000 residents. Other goals include 20% renewable energy sources throughout the completion of the development, 100% potable water, and 90% of the citizens using a “green commute” (i.e., walking, biking, mass transportation) to work. Other key performance indicators are listed here. In the words of our guide today, the purpose of the Eco City is that it is not meant to be the most technologically advanced, but it is more focused on reducing carbon footprint through smarter city planning.
Smarter city planning brings that small town feeling to contemporary urbanization. It locates residential areas close to commercial areas like restaurants, grocery stores, and municipal services, encouraging its citizens to work as well as live there. Instead of sprawling outward, it expands upward. It also increases the convenience of walking, biking, or mass transportation to driving a vehicle. All of the buildings must be built according to the Asian equivalent of the LEED standard, and the community includes all of the essential services such as health care, police, fire, and education services as well. Technologically, it is very advanced, but this is not branded as the main attraction of the eco city. This includes everything from their water infrastructure to a smarter electrical grid to even fiber optic internet connections in each residence.
The eco city is an excellent example of a working partnership between the Singapore and Chinese government. It is an opportunity for the Singapore government to push for access for its businesses in a new area, and it allows the Chinese government to show its citizens the benefits of sustainable development. The eco city also aims to attract citizens and businesses that will both further push sustainability through their work and their life. When pressed about the issue of people continuing to commute from outside the eco city to the businesses inside, the developers of the eco city are still not worried; they are confident that the schools, new apartments, and atmosphere of the city will attract people on its own.
Another aspect of the eco city is that it serves as a model for sustainable research and development. Pushing for renewable energy, a smarter grid, energy efficient buildings, and more efficient water systems improve much more quickly through real-world application than they do in the lab. Employing them here in Tianjin in a contained environment is a fantastic way to foster this development. Maybe some cities in the U.S. could learn a lesson or two from sustainable development here in Tianjin.
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