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Chengdu's priorities: education, accommodation, medication

By Zhao Xie (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-05-13 16:12

According to the blueprint, the program will involve rebuilding houses on the original sites, relocating residents to other areas and repairing and maintaining houses that suffered only minor damage during the earthquake.

The Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding Center is among the first tourist attractions opened to visitors after the earthquake. [China Daily]

The program is also a part of an initiative to build a new rural infrastructure around Chengdu. Much of the thinking behind the plan has been derived from the lessons learnt from real estate development in the cities. A prime focus for the planning of rural areas has been to ensure that the new residences are in harmony with their environment.

The government has also made environmental protection and energy saving a priority in the formulation of the rural development plans. This includes the use of environmental-friendly and energy-saving building materials and the development of alternative energies, including methane gas.

School construction

One of the many tragedies of the Sichuan earthquake was the loss of 5,000 of the province's students, with many of them killed by collapsing school buildings. Rebuilding the destroyed schools has been an important part of the plans of the city government. Construction of 67 new schools has already been completed, with plans now in place for the reconstruction of 263 more.

The Juyuan Middle School in Dujiangyan was among the most severely damaged during the earthquake. According to the city government, construction of the new Juyuan will be completed by July 1.

The new school will have a total floor space of 26,300 sq m and be capable of accommodating more than 2,100 students in 48 classrooms. The school is expected to become one of the premier educational facilities in Chengdu, in terms of both its equipment and facilities.

Construction of all the new schools is expected to be completed by September 1. It is anticipated that all the students in the city will be studying in permanent school buildings next spring.

In addition to replacing the lost facilities, the city government is also taking the opportunity to advance its school modernization program. This will see many of them provided with new and advanced educational equipment, an upgraded management structure and an improved teaching standard.

The government also plans to bridge the gap between schooling in urban and rural areas. This will see countryside schools allocated greater levels of educational resources.

Medical care system

To the millions of people watching the tragedy unfold on television, one of the most heartbreaking scenes will have been the collapse of the Dujianyan Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital. This was particularly tragic as this vast facility would have had a huge role to play in caring for the victims.

Today reconstruction of the hospital is well underway. With a planned floor space of some 30,000 sq m, this project will be completed in June next year. It has been designed to become one of the most well-equipped hospitals in Sichuan.

This hospital is only one of the many medical facilities that are part of Chengdu's reconstruction program. When completed, these facilities will have total floor space of 931,700 sq m and represent a combined investment of 2.87 billion yuan.

As part of the reconstruction scheme, the city government of Chengdu will give special priority to the implementation of a community medical care system, especially for those in rural areas. About 260 community medical establishments will be either built or rebuilt in Chengdu over the next two years, offering care facilities to more than 2.8 million people.

The whole-scale recovery of the medical care system is expected to be completed within three years.

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