One county in China has been exempt from the country's controversial one-child policy for two decades. Additional rules about when parents may marry and have children have kept the county's birthrate lower than the national average.
"For the past 21 years, the citizens of Yicheng County, in the mining province of Shanxi, have been exempt from the 'one-child policy' on which the Chinese government has founded its bid to keep a lid on its vast population. They have been allowed to have two children. Yet Yicheng's birth-rate is lower than the national average."
"'If the whole country had adopted the Yicheng policy from the start, we could have kept China's population under 1.2 billion,' below the official target for 2000, says Tan Kejian, of Shanxi's provincial Academy of Social Sciences. 'And this policy was much easier for peasants to accept.'"
"Compared to the rest of the country, things are different for Yicheng's 310,000 inhabitants. Parents there can have two children, whatever the sex of their firstborn, if they adhere to certain conditions."
"Men may not marry before the age of 25 and women may not before age 23 without being fined. That's three years later for both sexes than the national policy. They must also wait six years before having a second baby. If they don't, they are fined 1,200 RMB (about $160) per year early, or about 20 percent of an average couple's income in the region, says Yang Chunxiang, the family-planning boss here in Ren Wang."
"'No one here is rich enough to pay that easily,' she says. There have been no third children in the village since the '80s, and few whose birth didn't track the six-year gap."
FULL STORY: Chinese county reins in birth-rate – without a one-child limit
The Mall Is Dead — Long Live the Mall
The American shopping mall may be closer to its original vision than ever.
The Paradox of American Housing
How the tension between housing as an asset and as an essential good keeps the supply inadequate and costs high.
Report: Las Vegas, Houston Top List of Least Affordable Cities
The report assesses the availability of affordable rental units for low-income households.
Anchorage Leaders Debate Zoning Reform Plan
Last year, the city produced the fewest new housing units in a decade.
How to Protect Pedestrians With Disabilities
Public agencies don’t track traffic deaths and injuries involving disabled people, leaving a gap in data to guide safety interventions.
Colorado Town Fills Workforce Housing Need With ‘Dorm-Style’ Housing
Median rent in Steamboat Springs is $4,000 per month.
City of Yakima
City of Auburn
Baylands Development Inc.
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
Mpact Transit + Community
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
City of Birmingham, Alabama
City of Laramie, Wyoming
Colorado Department of Local Affairs
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.