The revival of legendary Suzhou Creek
By Xiao Li |
April 15, 2013, Monday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
JIE Zhengqin, 53, was born in Panjiawan and Suzhou Creek was opposite the family's old house.
But for the past 10 years, Jie has been leaving in a new apartment development, Brilliant City, which overlooks a cleaner, landscaped and much more appealing Suzhou Creek.
"It seems like destiny. I can still see the creek," Jie tells Shanghai Daily.
In the old days, when relatives came to visit in her old wooden house on the foul waterway, they could smell the neighborhood from far away, though the family had gotten used to the smell.
Whenever it rained, they worried about flooding since the house was lower than the creek.
In 1999 the government started rezoning the Panjiawan and Tanziwan neighborhoods, relocating residents to modern communities in Taopu Area and cleaning up the pollution in Suzhou Creek.
People were eager to move away.
But Jie decided to move back after a while. She and her family rented an apartment elsewhere during the transition and cleanup. With the compensation from the original relocation, she bought a new apartment under construction in the old neighborhood and moved in two years later, in late 2001.
After the many years living along Suzhou Creek, Jie and her family felt attached to the old neighborhood, despite the poor environment, but they knew it would improve.
When they moved back, everything had changed.
"The transportation is so convenient; it's close to the downtown area and the train station," Jie says.
Her new apartment in Brilliant City covers around 102 square meters.
"I'm scared of insects, but the new apartment doesn't have these pests and I don't have to worry on rainy days," she says. "Back in Panjiawan, there was no feeling of safety."
Jie's sister also returned and bought an apartment.
The old neighborhoods were given a second chance, as Suzhou Creek was given a new life.
Many other people just like Jie lived along Suzhou Creek for most of their lives, witnessing sweeping changes in the once squalid and dangerous area.
The neighborhoods of Panjiawan and Tanziwan are now high-rise communities with parks, trees and landscaped zones along the banks of Suzhou Creek. Residents again look out across the creek in what has become a highly desirable community and a clean-up success story.
In the 1860s, Suzhou Creek was an important transportation line and factories and warehouses lined the creek during Shanghai's industrial period. They also discharged toxic substances and garbage into the river. By 1949 there were more than 1,900 companies of all kinds in the industrial district along the creek.
Starting in the late 1960s, the creek began to "die."
The fish died, the water turned black and thick and the smell of filth and chemicals was overpowering.
In 1998 the Suzhou Creek Rehabilitation Project was launched. Polluted water was treated, dilapidated housing was cleared away and new residential communities built along landscaped banks. The creek was dredged to remove industrial toxins lying at the bottom for more than 100 years. After three phases of rehabilitation, the overall environment has improved significantly. The smell is gone, the water is clearer, fish and shrimp have been spotted. There's still more cleaning up to do.
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