By staff reporter LUO YUANJUN

Old Shop Street in the Family Garden.	The Shanghai World Expo Bell Tower opening ceremony was held in Shanghai on March 23, 2006.	The Pujiang World Expo Family Garden for relocated residents.

The maiden flight of an airplane bearing the 2010 Shanghai World Expo emblem from Beijing Capital International Airport on March 14, 2006 signaled the onset of preparations for this major event. Since China won its bid to hold the Expo, Shanghai Municipality has expedited detailed plans to ensure that everything goes ahead smoothly.

The 2010 Shanghai World Expo will occupy an estimated 5.28 sq km, or 1 percent of Shanghai’s urban district. This entails relocation of some 272 enterprises and 18,000 households. In line with the Expo’s theme “Better City, Better Life,” a great deal of thought has gone into these Shanghai residents’ new homes, culminating in a major residential community relocation project -- the Pujiang World Expo Family Garden. The project has a planned area of 1.5 square kilometers and homes for 27,600 people.

The Family Garden is in Pujiang Zhongxin Town, Minhang District, 17.5 kilometers from the People’s Square at the center of Shanghai. Of the one city and nine satellite towns that surround Shanghai, Pujiang is nearest to the city proper. The Caohejing Pujiang Science and Technology Park is situated in its east the Huangpu River in the west, and according to its general development plan, there will be a green forest belt in the south, with the 10.3 square kilometer town center to its north.

Software engineer Wang used to work in the city center and after moving to the Family Garden found work in the science and technology park. “My job is much nearer home now,” he said, “it has a peaceful working environment, the salary is good, and I have more time to rest.” Job opportunities in the Caojinghe Pujiang Science and Technology Park act as a further incentive to move to the World Expo Family Garden, as Shanghai Municipality has made it clear that as regards job applications to the science and technology park, priority will be given to its residents.

The Family Garden provides a much larger living space whose architecture and community facilities try to afford all the convenience and neighborly friendship of the alleyway lifestyle that the relocated families were familiar with back in their old homes, in crowded downtown Shanghai. It has a vegetable market, department store, post office, bank, clinic, school and parking lot. Residents can either travel by bus, or now that the M8 underground line has been extended to Pujiang Town and the World Expo site, take the 15-minute subway journey to the city center. “One of my reservations about moving to the Garden was that travel to the city center where I work might be difficult,” said Madame Huang, a former city center resident, “but I was relieved to find that it takes just over half an hour by bus from my new home in the Family Garden.”

The design of the Pujiang World Expo Family Garden incorporates features reminiscent of old Shanghai. One of the most eye-catching is Old Shop Street, lined with the dozen or so stores that formerly stood in Huangpu District. “I’ve known these shops since my childhood,” said one senior citizen who recently moved to the Family Garden from Huangpu District. The establishments were relocated along with their patrons in order to bring a comfortingly familiar ambience to this new environment.

“Most our old neighbors still live nearby, and the supermarket here is much bigger than the one in the city center,” said 66-year-old Mr. Fei. He and his five-member family moved from one 39.6-sq m room to a 109 sq m three-room apartment in the Family Garden. Each relocated family receives resettlement compensation sufficient to buy an apartment in the Family Garden double the size of its old house. Residents of the World Expo Family Garden thus have the double benefit of a cleaner, more spacious living space as well as all the facilities and services that they had in the city proper.

The Shanghai World Expo resettlement project is also known as the “Sunny Resettling Project.” Resettlement policies and procedures are posted on local community notice boards in order to allay any anxiety, and the local government has done its utmost to look after the interests and meet the demands of relocated residents.

Eighty-eight-year-old Zhou Jingen was among the first group of people to sign a relocation agreement. “Four generations of my family lived in my old house, so I have many fond memories of the place,” he said, “but the World Expo in Shanghai is an important state event that I firmly support. I look forward to coming back and seeing how the World Expo project looks when it is finished.”

As the support and assent of Shanghai residents is vital for smooth implementation of the Shanghai World Expo relocation project, the municipal government has mobilized prominent residents, representatives of relocated residents, lawyers and community workers to make residents aware of the significance of the project and how they stand to benefit from it.

Madame Huang is in her 70s and has been living in the city of Shanghai since she was 16. She is, therefore, familiar with every detail of her environment. She was unwilling to leave her old house at first, but after resettlement operatives explained the relocation agreement to her and taken her to see the new apartment and its fresh, yet familiar, surroundings, Madame Huang readily agreed to move.

An octogenarian couple that lived on East Donghua Road in central Shanghai, and who rely solely on each other for their day-to-day living presented a challenge as regards suitable relocation. They needed a first floor apartment in a location close to shops and facilities in peaceful surroundings. After consultation with the couple, resettlement workers looked for suitable places, and in May this year, found the ideal apartment. The couple received help moving and with necessary interior decorations, and were visited on several occasions after the move to ensure they had everything they needed.

The government has expressed its gratitude for the support and co-operation of resettled residents by presenting each family unit with a Shanghai World Expo memento pack that includes an entrance ticket to this grand event. Relocated residents will thus be the first visitors to the 2010 Shanghai World Expo.