Chinese and US Students Place Spotlight on Urban Development

This article was originally published by You Think! 

In Summer 2006, teams of students from Chongqing, Beijing and Los Angeles investigated urban development in Chongqing towns (in China) with World Bank-funded projects underway. In the words of Peking University student Wang Bingsong, "We learned as much from our cross-cultural teamwork experience as we did from direct observation of local conditions." USC student Tanner Blackman affirmed this view, adding, "Collaboration between the three schools was the Lab's best feature."

Successful urbanization in small and medium-sized cities is crucial to the Chinese government's strategy of evening out development, which is outlined in its recent 11th 5-Year Plan.

With support from the World Bank Office, Beijing, the China Development Lab has been conducting a dual-city case study on Bank-funded urban projects in such secondary cities in Chongqing municipality over the last two weeks.

The Lab is a collaborative project to investigate urbanization between Peking University's (PKU's) School of Government and the University of Southern California's (USC's) School of Policy, Planning and Development, joined by the Chongqing Technology and Business University (CTBU).

Organized into two city teams comprised of economic, environmental and social divisions, graduate students from the three schools visited Bank project sites and relevant sites of infrastructural significance. The teams assessed the projects' impact on urbanization, which has been underway across Chongqing so extensively that "construction cranes seem to form an integral part of the city skylines there," noted USC student Arlene Fetizanan.

In Bishan, the first group of students visited a river embankment project in its completed, ongoing and future designated sections along with a water treatment plant site, both financed under the Chongqing Urban Environment Project. In Qianjiang, the second group of students focused on a planned road to link its newly constructed train station with its soon-to-be completed airport, financed under the Chongqing Small Cities Project.

In a simulated consulting capacity, students were tasked to deliver a set of recommendations to the World Bank for future funding priorities in the two case cities.

Prior to the students' fieldwork, Bank staff including Bert Hofman, Andres Liebenthal and Tom Zearley provided the students with an overview of the development challenges facing China as well as Chongqing municipality. Regional development authorities in Chongqing from CTBU and the Chongqing Project Management Office supplemented the national perspective with a briefing on regional conditions.

Once in the field, students met with senior representatives of various government departments and informally engaged with local residents to explore local conditions and identify a prioritized list of city needs.

Their innovative collaboration bridged divides between regional and national universities in China as much as it linked overseas academic communities to their Chinese counterparts.

At the end of the field work, students pooled their findings into a single report on development priorities for Chongqing Municipality based on their two case studies. At CTBU's GDLN facility, students presented their findings in a videoconference that linked the Lab to audiences and panelists who assembled to critique the report at USC in Los Angeles and at the Bank Office in Beijing.

The team's report targeted capacity building, specifically in terms of vocational training for workers in its food processing industries and the promotion of eco-tourism for Qianjiang. In Bishan, the report recommended resources be allocated to wastewater treatment and water supply to keep up with its projected growth.

The student report identified these as the most pressing developmental needs among an array of priorities in the two smaller cities.

Students marveled at the rapidity of transformation in China's western small and medium-sized cities. "The efficiency of the process is impressive," noted participating USC student Vivek Munipalle, who frequently compared conditions he observed in Chongqing with those of his home country, India.

Of greater surprise to Zhang Xuzhu of CTBU was the amount that students learned from one another. PKU participant Xu Shanshan agreed with Zhang, citing the research methods and team organization among the USC students' most valuable contributions.

For their own part, USC participants repeatedly acknowledged the usefulness of the disciplinary training in regional economics and environmental sciences that their Chinese counterparts brought to the project. CTBU Environmental Studies student Wang Ying, for example, supplied her teammates with an assessment of a city dump's impact on groundwater and neighboring residential communities.