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The Shenzhen & Hong Kong Bi-city Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture embodies an open attitude, the spirit of innovation and the courage of constant exploration that all inherited from the history of establishing Shenzhen Special Economic Zone. The biennials so far (starting in 2005) have built a communication platform for international art scenes in Shenzhen and Hong Kong.

Data gaps hobbling trial carbon markets Xu Nan Liu Shuang August 09, 2012 Seven Chinese regions are due to launch emissions-trading schemes next year. They will struggle to do so, write Liu Shuang and Xu Nan. Late last October, China's top economic planning body - the National Development and Reform Commission - instructed the cities of Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Chongqing and Shenzhen, plus Hubei and Guangdong provinces, to get ready to run carbon-trading trials. These are not China's first experiments with emissions trading. In fact, the country has of late seen a proliferation of exchanges: according to Chinese newspaper 21st Century Business Herald, by the time of last year's announcement, many provinces and cities were already setting up their own carbon exchanges, or "energy and environment exchanges" - which in almost all cases include trading of emissions rights. But to date, the platforms up and running are either voluntary or tied into the UN clean development mechanism. Some places, including Chengdu, Ningxia and Xinjiang, are either considering similar exchanges, or planning to host branches of the Shanghai Environment and Energy Exchange, though these tend to mean nothing more than one employee in a single office. The seven Beijing-backed, mandatory trials kick-started last October represent a new level of ambition, however. Ten months on, how are they progressing? The short answer is: slowly. [...]

Zhang Chun Wang Haotong August 03, 2012 China's low-carbon city programmes are doing well on public awareness, but an NGO survey finds little evidence of greener habits. Only a small proportion of people in China's low-carbon pilot cities are living "low-carbon lives" in spite of widespread knowledge of the green agenda, a year-long survey of household energy consumption carried out by Beijing-based NGO Green Beagle suggests. The study of habits in eight Chinese cities identified as green leaders by China's top economic planning body, the National Development and Reform Commission, involved 3,200 questionnaires and interviews with three to five households in different income brackets in each region. The NGO wanted to find out if inhabitants of these places had heard about "low-carbon" lifestyles and whether they were making efforts to reduce their own environmental footprint through their daily choices. Under the "low-carbon" pilot scheme, which launched in 2010, the eight cities - Tianjin, Chongqing, Shenzhen, Xiamen, Hangzhou, Nanchang, Guiyang and Baoding - are trying to find ways of reducing carbon emissions while continuing to grow economically (Beijing and Shanghai were added to the list in 2011, but are treated as a separate category). Five provinces are charged with the same task: Guangdong, Liaoning, Hubei, Shanxi and Yunnan. If they perform well, they will be treated as an example for the rest of the country.[...]

A 108-meter high Eiffel Tower rises above Champs Elysées Square in Hangzhou. A Chengdu residential complex for 200,000 recreates Dorchester, England. An ersatz Queen's Guard patrols Shanghai's Thames Town, where pubs and statues of Winston Churchill abound. Gleaming replicas of the White House dot Chinese cities from Fuyang to Shenzhen. These examples are but a sampling of China's most popular and startling architectural movement: the construction of monumental themed communities that replicate towns and cities in the West.

For more than three decades China has achieved remarkable success in economic development, but its rapid growth has resulted in considerable damage to the natural environment. In 1998, the World Health Organization reported that seven of the ten most polluted cities in the world were in China. Sulfur dioxide and soot produced by coal combustion fall as acid rain on approximately 30 percent of China's land area. Industrial boilers and furnaces consume almost half of China's coal and are the largest sources of urban air pollution. In many cities, the burning of coal for cooking and heating accounts for the rest. At the same time, since the beginning of economic reform in the late 1970s, the government has paid considerable attention to environmental problems, particularly in terms of regulatory responsibility and enforcement at the local government level. China passed the Environmental Protection Law for trial implementation in 1979, and in 1982 the constitution included important environmental protection provisions. Since then, various laws and policies have been put in place to address China's current and future urban environment. The 2010 World Exposition in Shanghai provided evidence that the Chinese government views its environmental problems as a priority. The green construction of the facilities for the Expo and particularly of the Chinese Pavilion reflected the emphasis the government has placed on protecting and improving the environment through new technologies. In addition, China's "eco cities" have also been recognized worldwide for advances in urban sustainability, such as Tianjin, Shenzhen, and Wuxi.

For much of the 20th century, the world looked to American cities for a glimpse of the future. Places like New York and Chicago had the tallest skyscrapers, the newest airports, the fastest highways, and the best electricity grids. But now, just 12 years into the Asian Century, the city of the future has picked up and moved to China. No less than U.S. Vice President Joe Biden recognized this when he said not long ago, "If I blindfolded Americans and took them into some of the airports or ports in China and then took them to one in any one of your cities, in the middle of the night … and then said, 'Which one is an American? Which one is in your city in America? And which one's in China?' most Americans would say, 'Well, that great one is in America.' It's not." The speech raised eyebrows among conservative commentators, but it points out the obvious to anyone who has spent time in Beijing, Hong Kong, or Shanghai (or even lesser-known cities like Shenzhen and Dalian, for that matter). En ligne, site consulté le : 17/08/2012