Forums > Living in Kunming > Kunming City Planning @oyarsa
"Is there any kind of legitimate planning that goes on in the development of this city?"
Yes, Kunming has city planning. If it didn't, then it would be a far more chaotic place than it is (compared to most developing world cities Kunming really is fairly orderly and planned out).
However, I sense that the operative word in your question is "legitimate". Seeing as this is a highly subjective concept, it seems you're looking for fellow commiserators to corroborate what you feel is poor city planning.
I have friends in Kunming's City Planning and Transportation Planning departments. They are smart people with good ideas, and they have worked in conjunction with city planners from Switzerland for years. The problem, they tell me, is that in the end, they merely occupy an advisory role. Party officials all too often ignore their good advice and make decisions that are contrary to good planning. When this happens, the good folks at the planning department have no choice but to wring their hands and shake their heads.
"It seems like it is just "let's tear up the whole thing at once". Has anyone lived in other cities in China or elsewhere and seen anything like this before?"
Um, yeah, like pretty much every city in China!
One of the main things city planners do is make zoning rules. Kunming does have these. You can't build a factory in the middle of the city. Kunming has something that most American cities lack: mixed use residential and commercial land use (i.e. stores on the first floor and apartments on the upper floors of most buildings). This is very much the result of planning (which also touches on the rules of the permitting process for business) and it is an example of good city planning. Mixed use development means that people can shop for groceries and daily goods without having to drive to a shopping center. It reduces traffic and is more environmentally friendly.
Another good example of city planning in Kunming is the subway system. While we have obviously yet to see its benefits, and have only suffered the inconvenience caused by its construction so far, it will definitely make Kunming a better and more livable place once it is open. Also, in conjunction with the subway system, the city planning department is carrying out transit-oriented development policies, concentrating high density development along transit corridors.
I don't mean to sound like a booster for Kunming CIty Planning. There's a lot of nonsense, too.
The wide boulevards and huge blocks facilitate added car traffic at the expense of the more pedestrian friendly fabric of older neighborhoods. Kunming is too preoccupied with trying to make life easier for cars, when it should be doing the exact opposite. Building more roads never solves traffic problems; it only creates more traffic (it's like what Kevin Costner said in "Field of Dreams"..."If you built it they will come"). The only way to curtail traffic is to actively disincentive car use by making driving a car expensive, cumbersome, and inconvenient. Ways of doing this include new fees and taxes on gas, vehicle registration, and car purchases, narrowing streets and reducing the number of car lanes, more strictly enforcing traffic laws and punishing violators, limiting parking, and traffic calming measures such as speed bumps.
I would add another problem in Kunming's urban planning is that all of the new development is aimed at upmarket clientele. There is not enough affordable housing for the working class, for new urban migrants. This is where city planning overlaps with larger socioeconomic policy and is not the under the purview of the city planning department. Any changes in this regard will have to come from the city government itself.
Cycling the Nujiang: Bingzhongluo and the Tibet border
Posted byDan,
Thanks for your report.
Sean and I biked from Bingzhongluo towards the Tibetan border on January 1st, 2010. We thought we might have reached the Tibetan border after riding for a few hours from Bingzhongluo, but now that I see the sign in your photograph I realize we never actually made it. Where we turned around was a small wooden dilapidated house with a tiny store in it. Do you remember how many more km from that wooden house to the actual border it was?
Interesting that when we visited in the middle of the winter the weather was considerably better than it seems to have been for you in the summer. Blue skies, and beautiful blue water in river.
Also...did you really take a bus direct to Bingzhongluo from Kunming? Was that a standard passenger bus, or a private chartered bus? We saw no signs of passenger buses direct from Bingzhongluo to Kunming when we were there. In fact, we didn't even see direct buses from Gongshan. The furthest up the valley one could get direct from Kunming in December 2009/January 2010 was Fugong.
New Kunming airport's first phase nearing completion
Posted byIf there are to be direct flights linking Kunming to The Americas, Europe, and Australia, which cities in particular do you think are most likely to score one?
Please submit your guesses.
Mine:
Europe - London, Paris
Australias - Sydney, Melbourne
Americans - Vancouver, Los Angeles, San Francisco
Is this too optimistic? I'm not sure really how much market there is for these routes. I'd benefit, but how many others are there like me? How many actual Europeans, Australians, and North Americans live in Kunmign? A few thousand?
Then of course there's foreign tourists. That might be where it makese sense. I'd guess a good chunk of the foreigners who come to China would like to include Kunming on their itineraries? Currently the fly into the hubs in Shanghai, Guangzhou, or Beijng, and then travel to Kunming by train or domestic flight. I wonder how many would be diverted onto the new direct flights.
And then the're the outgoing Chinese market, which I imagine would not be insignificant. The number of Chinese going abroad for business, travel, and study abroad is getting bigger every year.
But all together, how much aggregate demand is there for these direct flights? Maybe if they only operate a 2-3 days a week they'd make sense.
Please add your thoughts on this topic...
Traveler loses Lonely Planet, stranded at Salvador's
Posted byThis post made my evening.
But I've gotta know...is Jenny part of the team, or for real?
:P
Around Town: China's last narrow gauge passenger train
Posted byThanks so much for this article, Chris!
I've been meaning to ride this train ever since I first moved to Kunming almost 2 years ago (I used to live on 建设路 right next to the train tracks and waiting for it to cross was part of my daily routine). Being somewhat of a train geek myself, I'm embarrassed to say I never actually did it.
But seeing your article now, I'm inspired. In fact, this very afternoon, I think I'll go to the North Station and take the afternoon run to 石咀!
Myanmar drugs imperil Chinese border towns
Posted byTangentially related anecdote:
I've recently been watching a Chinese TV series called 军人荣誉.
It's entirely filmed on location in Yunnan, and centers around the 缉毒警察 (anti-narcotics armed police division) and their efforts to control the drug trade between Myanmar and Yunnan.
At times it's pretty cheesy, but also quite entertaining. Every few episodes there's a new story arc focusing on a different drug trafficking party. Usually there a beautiful girl, led down a path of personal destruction by some nightclub boss or gangster. We see flashbacks of the girl's life when she was still innocent and pure, and then see how she was corrupted.
Can hardly vouch for its authenticity, but thought it merited a mention on this thread.
You can find all the episodes on youku and tudou.