City's last shantytown now popular park

Hu Shulai and his family had lived in Tianjin's Guojia Caiyuan village for more than a century.

"It was a shantytown," Hu said. "Three generations often lived under one roof in a 10-square-meter room and dilapidated houses were frequently flooded during seasonal floods."

In May 2018, Li Qing, Party chief of Hongqiao district, made a field trip to the village, which was located near the Ziya River, a tributary of Haihe River.

After learning of their difficulties, he set up a special work team to speed up the relocation of the villagers before that summer's flood season. Two months later in July, all the 563 families moved to new apartments with government support.

It allocated 1,080 new apartments and 400 million yuan ($55.8 million) to the villagers, with each household able to afford nearly two houses.

After the relocation, Tianjin's last urban fishing village was transformed into a 140,000 sq-m park known as the Ziya River Bank Park, and has now become a popular destination for residents and visitors.

The village is the epitome of Tianjin's efforts to renovate dilapidated rural houses.

In 2017, the city launched a campaign to enhance housing conditions and the living environment in rural areas, and to build new types of rural homes.

Over the past five years, Tianjin has renovated 1.6 million sq m of shantytowns and 94 million sq m of old neighborhoods, and helped 22,000 rural households renovate their homes.

In October, Tianjin announced it would provide 50,000 to 100,000 government-subsidized apartments during the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) period to residents, including low-income families, university graduates and migrant workers.

As a delegate to the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, Li has been busy delivering speeches to communities, companies and schools around the Hongqiao district, spreading the spirit of Congress reports.

"As a delegate to the Congress, I have enormous political responsibilities and a sense of mission and I will speed up my efforts to address the needs of the grassroots," he said.

On top of Li's agenda is the infrastructure and expansion of basic education and welfare facilities, including the expansion and planning of 11 primary and middle schools and the addition of 5,540 preschool places.

"The satisfaction of residents in terms of living, studying and medical care is my priority," Li said.

The district has built three new hospitals and established 27 nursing homes with 3,330 beds.