Shanghai's Suburbanization Plan

To cope with future growth in Shanghai, planning authorities have adopted a strategy of suburbanization for moving people out of ageing low-rise buildings in the dense urban core and relocating them to newly built suburbs farther out of town.

"The plan defines the 600-square-kilometre area within Shanghai's outer ring road as central Shanghai. Outside the ring road, according to the plan, nine new towns with a combined population of 5.4 million and 60 new small towns with populations of around 50,000 each will be built."

"But while the economic and strategic reasons for this exodus make sense, and hundreds of thousands of families have benefited from improved living conditions as a result of moving, the strategy has not been without controversy."