Open residential roads by law

Whether walled residential areas should have their walls torn down has sparked debate, after the State Council, China's Cabinet, issued a document on Sunday stating walled residential areas will not be constructed in the future and those that have walls will gradually have them removed so the roads are open to public traffic.

Undoubtedly, such an idea is meant to ease the increasingly serious traffic congestion in most cities by incorporating all roads and alleyways into a city's road network.

Yet for quite a number of walled residential areas, it is a matter of whether it is legal or not for the government to tear down their walls and open their roads to public traffic.