China discusses building beautiful towns

Beautiful towns should integrate history and culture with infrastructure and public services, said Chinese experts at an urbanization seminar on Monday.

Current urbanization should pay more attention to the internal beauty of culture, said Zhang Chaowei, deputy head of the Institute of Modern Urban-Rural Development Planning under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

This requires local governments not only to develop basic public cultural services, but also to focus on local historical and non-material heritage as an constituent element of town beauty, said Zhang at the new urbanization seminar in Lin'an City, east China's Zhejiang Province.

The construction of beautiful towns enhances local competitiveness and attraction, he added.

Wang Yuhai, professor of Resources Science and Technology at Beijing Normal University, said the construction of beautiful towns needs a long time and the difficulty lies in coordinated development in population, resources and environment.

The construction process should first focus on infrastructure, then the strengthening of public services, cultural heritage and the deepening of reform and integration, he said.

Security, equality, high efficiency and visual beauty are the features of future beautiful towns, said Yin Chengzhi, associate professor of Public Policy and Management of Tsinghua University, at the forum.

The seminar is part of a new media reporting activity, "Beautiful China. Looking for most beautiful towns". It is organized by China's official Xinhua News Agency. Online voting will be carried out during the event, in which domestic scholars will review 90 towns or cities across the country.

In March, China unveiled the National New-type Urbanization Plan (2014-2020) in an effort to steer the country's urbanization onto a human-centered and environmentally friendly path.

The plan provides strategic and fundamental guidance for healthy urbanization during a seven-year period.