Renovating shantytowns benefits all

One water faucet and one toilet shared by 830 households in an urban shantytown: this is how poor living conditions can be for some urban residents who cannot afford their own apartments and need the government to provide them with better living conditions.

Pointing to these shabby dwellings with neither sewers nor central heating, in Taiyuan, capital of North China's Shanxi province, Premier Li Keqiang said on Monday: "There are way too many things left to be done in China!"

On the one hand, the huge stockpile of unsold homes is still growing. Bringing the sluggish realty market back to life is proving a hard nut for the government to crack. On the other hand, many urban residents are still living in shantytowns and cannot afford to buy a home of their own.