After the Spring Festival, Wang Cuilan, the Party branch secretary of Tianyuan Community on Linhai Street in Arxan City, Inner Mongolia, has been busier than usual. Every day she visits local residents to understand their opinions and views on the shantytown redevelopment project. Helping relevant departments carry out public awareness work among the residents has become a key focus of her job. The Tianyuan Community on Linhai Street is densely packed with single-story houses, and the redevelopment task is quite heavy. On the eve of the Spring Festival, a visit and consolation from General Secretary Xi Jinping gave local residents greater expectations for the shantytown redevelopment.
Arxan is located in the hinterland of the Northeast Asia Economic Circle and the western gateway of China’s Northeast Economic Zone. It shares a 93.531-kilometer border with Mongolia and is a border port city that the autonomous region is focusing on developing. Vast forests and grasslands, mysterious and tranquil volcanic lakes, thrilling ice and snow landscapes, and highly therapeutic hot springs—all of these attractions from different regions converge in Arxan. In mid-to-late May, the area will also be covered in blooming azaleas, creating a spectacular scene where blossoms rival the snow. However, as one of the former major timber production areas, Arxan, sprawled across the southwestern foothills of the Greater Khingan Mountains, has a population of 68,000, almost all of whom have some connection to forestry. A significant portion of forest residents still live in shantytowns.
Local residents Liu Bo and Li Guixia both live in old houses built in the 1980s. Due to their age, the insulation in the houses has deteriorated over time, and after the implementation of forest conservation policies, fuel has also become an issue. As a result, they have long hoped for improved housing conditions. “We’re all looking forward to moving into apartment buildings as soon as possible,” said Li Guixia, voicing the sentiments of the shantytown residents.
The total area of shantytowns within Arxan’s jurisdiction is 1.1 million square meters, involving 17,000 households—540,000 square meters and 7,095 households in urban shantytowns, and 560,000 square meters and 9,905 households in forestry shantytowns. To address the dilapidated housing conditions of former forestry workers, starting in 2009, Arxan began fully advancing the redevelopment of 100,000 square meters of shantytowns. However, the redevelopment work in forested areas faces numerous challenges.
“If the weather is good, earthwork can start by late May, allowing masonry work to proceed from June through September,” said Tong Baojian, director of the Housing Security Office in Arxan, to reporters. “But if winter arrives early, and the masonry work isn’t completed, subsequent work such as windows, roofs, and pipelines can’t proceed, delaying the entire project by a year.” In Arxan, which lies in the cold temperate zone, the window for suitable construction is relatively short each year.
“Arxan is located in a mountainous, forested region with complex geological conditions. Pipeline routes must pass through rivers, mountains, marshes, and even forested areas,” explained Ni Jie, director of the Arxan Construction Bureau. Even after the main structure of the houses is completed, it’s still not easy for residents to move in, as the construction of essential infrastructure such as water, electricity, and heating systems remains a challenging task.
However, Arxan has not slowed down its shantytown redevelopment efforts due to these difficulties. Mobilizing the entire city’s resources to advance shantytown redevelopment for the benefit of the people has become a major focus. By the end of 2013, Arxan had redeveloped 284,800 square meters of urban shantytowns, benefiting 3,845 households, with a total investment of 540 million yuan. In 2014, Arxan will fully launch redevelopment projects covering 427,500 square meters and 5,632 households. In 2015, it will continue with the remaining 192,500 square meters, aiming to basically complete all shantytown redevelopment within two years.
On the eve of this year’s Spring Festival, General Secretary Xi Jinping visited Yiershi Town in Arxan to meet with residents living in forestry shantytowns. He went into the homes of forestry workers, checked cellars, touched heated walls, sat on kang beds, and had heartfelt conversations with the people. Regarding Arxan, which is undergoing a tough industrial transition, the General Secretary urged the local authorities to accelerate shantytown redevelopment so residents could move into new homes sooner. He also noted, “Arxan’s natural scenery is beautiful in all four seasons,” and “Arxan’s tourism industry will definitely thrive.”
The General Secretary’s words have inspired the people of Arxan and given everyone greater hope. In fact, in line with the directive to “build Inner Mongolia into a tourism and leisure destination that reflects grassland culture and features unique northern frontier characteristics,” the Arxan Municipal Party Committee and government have established four special task forces for tourism, border ports, shantytown redevelopment, and empowering counties with expanded authority. Arxan will continue to uphold the development strategy of “establishing the city through ecology, revitalizing it through tourism, and strengthening it through border ports,” striving to build itself into an “internationally renowned eco-leisure wellness resort (China’s national resort destination).”
“By boosting tourism and promoting economic transformation, turning Arxan—widely seen as a treasure trove of forests—into a premier leisure tourism destination in the northern frontier, and completing the shantytown redevelopment, we can ensure a better life and true prosperity for the people,” said a relevant official from Arxan. By accelerating both internal shantytown redevelopment and tourism resource development, while strengthening external promotion and media marketing, Arxan is making its tourism industry increasingly robust.
In 2013, Arxan received 1.31 million tourists, and in 2014, it is expected to welcome 1.6 million visitors, generating 1.94 billion yuan in tourism revenue. At the end of 2013, the National Tourism Administration officially approved the opening of three cross-border tourism routes between Arxan and Mongolia. Currently, initial plans are underway for the construction of cross-border highways between Arxan and Mongolia, and duty-free shops are also being prepared. As the local snow and ice begin to melt and the Azalea Festival arrives in May, Arxan—praised by the General Secretary as a “small but charming city” with “beautiful construction”—will transform into a dreamlike fairy-tale world. Cross-border tourism between northern Arxan and Mongolia is becoming a new trend for summer and even year-round cool-weather and ice-and-snow travel.