Time of Linked Cities

By Wang Yanbing

From olden times to the present, the word communication means both transportation and exchange, bringing communication to mind, the mind becomes sharp and open.

Constructing a mega communication for World Expo Shanghai is like maneuvering a big chessboard, which needs clear definition. It is the main tune of the harmonious chapter China brings to the world, drawing human distances closer in times of great gatherings.

Welcome Time of Linked Cities

Once, geographic distances were too large to cover. With the rapid growth of high-speed transportation, the time to distant places is shortened, hence the mental distance.

The integrated communication plan focuses on smooth, easy, express and comfortable qualities, it will make mass transportation easier when World Expo is held. By that time, visitors from all corners of the world will welcome a time of linked cities enjoying simultaneity in other cities.

The globalization of world economics endows the city with an attribute of a spatial carrier, and the development of a city shows the strong character of globalization as well. When cities are linked by easy transportation, life is changed starting from the most directly observed traveling way to the recognition of a social living pattern, forming the gradual process of modernization and urbanization.

Currently, regional city groups have gradually come into being in coastal areas, for example in the Yangtze River Delta, the Pearl River Delta, the Bejing-Tianjin-Tangshan area and the Bohai Sea Economic Ring. From a European experience, transportation will be a prior consideration in future development in order to reach real joint development. In Europe, a high-speed railway network plan is underway, by 2010, the HST network plan will link the key cities of Paris, Brussels, Cologne, Amsterdam and London, laying a solid foundation for the development of a regional city group in Europe as a whole. In China, HST between Shanghai and Beijing plays an important role in linking the city group in two areas. In recent years, high-speed transportation within the Yangtze River Delta is also in fast growth for shortening the time and distance among cities in the region, being well prepared for "spontaneous cities" effect.

Constructing metropolis ring in Yangtze River delta

With Shanghai the core city, the Yangtze River Delta is the place where North meets South and East collides with West. The place has become the navigator of Chinese economic vessel, and is even deemed as a generator of future world economic growth. As early as in 1976, Jean Gottmann, French geographer, founder of the "Metropolis Ring" theory, had considered the Yangtze River Delta world's "Sixth Biggest Metropolis Ring".

Shanghai's hosting of World Expo will greatly promote the process of infrastructure network construction in the delta. Taking Shanghai as the center, all 16 cities in the region are situated within a radius of 300 km. Visitors from the region will also form a major part when World Expo takes place. A reasonably framed and smoothly linked regional complex transportation system jointly constructed by Shanghai city and other administrations will facilitate visitors to the expo. For instance, visitors from the region may first arrive in the towns of Anting, Jiading, or Songjiang in the suburban Shanghai area, park and lodge there, then come to Shanghai city and enter the World Expo Park by public transportation; foreign or domestic visitors from other regions may have a tour in nearby Suzhou, Hangzhou city easily after participation in World Expo in Shanghai.

The high-speed complex transportation platform will provide convenience for the Yangtze River Delta and East China provinces going in and out and is composed of three parts: To focus on the key connection and hub based at the International Airport and Yangshan Deep Water Harbor; to strengthen regional transportation construction and to increase capacity and optimize connection points based on speedways, inner shipping routes, and trans-city railways, with trans-city express way networks in the delta under study; to increase transportation construction and function within Shanghai city based on central roads and city railways. For example, by connecting 6 inter-provincial speedways and shipping routes, Jiangsu province has greatly promoted its economic fusion in the delta; with the construction of the Suzhou-Nantong Bridge, the Chongming-Haimen Bridge, the Chongming-Qidong Bridge and the Chongming Riverbed Tunnel as a whole, time and distance taken from central and northern Jiangsu to Shanghai will be greatly shortened, facilitating the deep regional coordination and enhancing competitive power in the Yangtze River Delta Metropolis Ring. Meanwhile in Zhejiang province, soon after the completion of two sidelong and two lengthways speed ways totalling more than 1000km, a new 1000km long continuous project has just kicked off in the Hangzhou Bay area, together with key constructions the Hangzhou Bay Sea Bridge and the Zhoushan Sea Bridge are aiming to keep in line with Shanghai and bring itself into the Metropolis Ring. In Shanghai, the Hongqiao Complex Transportation Hub will become the hub for the whole region after its completion. From the point of the Shanghai transportation layout, it will effectively release passenger pressure and offer the strong ability to continue to activate the regional development in the long term after World Expo, which has a profound meaning for the integrity of regional economics.

Avail Expo for greater link

City expansion, an economic boom and a bigger traffic load are inevitable, with the increasing transportation need and supply, problems related to transportation and environmental protection are bound to surface. Coordinating city development with environmental protection and gaining sustainable growth has become an important part in city planning and administration around the world, especially in road construction and traffic administration.

Penetration and the speedup of coordination among city groups, plus infrastructure construction like transportation posed a question for city planners in analyzing the relationship between city transportation and the natural ecological system, and to look for moderate consumption, an energy saving transportation mode which is friendly to human inhabitation and in compliance with resource supply and environmental capability. We should also take into consideration relationships between the city transportation system and the social system in regards to making sustainable development in living areas, to provide even transportation access, and to upgrade resistant ability to natural disasters, etc. Furthermore, road coverage in both urban and rural areas should be taken as a whole, through sophisticated transportation and communication networks in both areas, the link between cities and the countryside are well established.

Constructing the greater transportation for World Expo also means forming the frame of spatial structure of city groups. Construction of multiple modern complex public transportation systems and raising the technological content to its administration will provide convenient, safe, highly efficient and economic transportation means for visitors to World Expo and avail the opportunity to build a greater connection and enhance the city transportation service level by doing so.