"At present there are 10 defects in the urban development in China." Prof. Chen Weibang, deputy director of the sci-tech committee with the Ministry of Construction, deputy councilor-general of the China Association for City Planing said at the forum for the development of small-and- medium-sized cities in China. The forum was held on 17 April 2004 in Yongchuan, Chongqing Municipality, and present at the forum were over 100 decision-making leaders from over 30 small and medium cities in China.

Due to the shortcomings in China's present system for the supervision and examination on the achievements of cadres and the deviation in the thought of guidance and recognition in city planning and construction, said Chen Weibang, the urban development in China is characterized with the following 10 defects.

1. In the scale for city development it favors something large blindly with negligence to its local conditions. They want to turn small cities into the medium and the medium into the big while for those big cities they wish to get them into metropolises of international standard;

2. In the course of construction it follows a pattern for something big and foreign, such as for large thoroughfare, large square with lawns and in a blind pursuance for highrise or super-highrise and for a symbolic building;

3. Some large cities are chasing blindly after the "CBD" while leaving aside the substantial reality in city construction and favor for a higher standard;

4. Some cities witness a great many of illegal construction by going against the regulation on land use, incurring a higgledy-piggledy image in their own cities;

5. Unharmonious construction in cities: Disregarding integrity of the whole city some construction units exaggerate too much their individuality, thus unable to form an integral good image of the city;

6. In the transformation of the old city it follows the way of large-scale removal and construction, causing destruction of some precious cultural relics and historical images. In some of the famous cultural cities too much emphases are laid on business, therefore affecting the cultural and historical features of the cities. In some cities they even resort to fake something old while destroying things really old;

7. In some cities and scenic resorting places tourism construction are conducted by destroying tourism resources;

8. In the city planning of some cities, no attention is paid to natural landscapes and such cases happen more often than not that they don't see the "mountains and waters by hand";

9. Sculptures in the city are more like rubbish rather than works of art;

10. A blind gardening of the city in which they favor the transplanting of big trees, introducing in exotic species of plants while neglecting local trees and grasses by following the way for a big city construction. The way of construction is rather in form than in reality, causing a lot of waste.

By People's Daily Online