"Energy saving" is the urbanization platform on which China should build upon while the traditional "industrialization-based mode" should be abandoned, experts agreed at a forum in Beijing on Sunday.

 

"As Silicon Valley is famous for its leading role in technological innovation and London is well known for financial services, city planners should tailor the right way for a city to build up its identity," said Vincent H S Lo, chairman and chief executive officer of Shui On Land Limited in Hong Kong, at the two-day 'China's 21st Century Urbanization Strategy Forum' which ended on Sunday.

 

While discussing China's urbanization, experts from home and abroad agreed that the country should follow a strategy based on an area' local characteristics and avoiding imitations of other world cities. .

 

"As the need for energy supplies has intensified in recent years the traditional methods for city development are quite impractical," said Seok Chui Kim, a renowned city planner from the Republic of Korea. 

 

Many Chinese cities boasted rich history and culture--something which could be taken advantage of through the development of tourism and which could be anchored to a growing interest in culture, he suggested.

 

It’s estimated that in the next few decades China's urbanization process will transfer may millions of people from villages to cities thus causing significant changes to China's social structure..

 

(Xinhua News Agency February 20, 2006)