New action plan to tap full potential of new cities

Reporters gained first-hand experience of cutting-edge features of Qingpu New City during a press tour on Tuesday. The trip coincided with the unveiling of the 2025 Shanghai New City Development Action Plan at a briefing early in the day.

In a surprisingly bright and serene day, in the wake of previous three days ravaged by strong gusts of wind, reporters got to see the eMobile Park, a dedicated smart industrial space providing full life-cycle, full value-chain services to industrial clusters, numbering over 600 enterprises, on the strength of sophisticated smart equipment and state-of-art information technology.

In its showroom were not only sophisticated communication devices, but also two smart, electric motorcycles.

According to the action plan each of the five "new cities" will focus on some niche industrial segments, so as to avoid internecine competition.

Specifically, Jiading New City will focus on medical devices and high-end equipment, Qingpu on Beidou and low-altitude economy, Songjiang on instruments and meters, and new-energy facilities, Fengxian on beauty and health, and Nanhui on the full industrial chain of large aircraft. The trip to Qingpu, according to municipal sources, marked the beginning of a series of similar tours to the other new cities.

During the visit to China Eastern Airlines Technology Application Research and Development Center, Li Jinming, president of Qingpu District Aviation Industrial Association, said that while experts have yet to come up with a generally acceptable definition of the low-altitude economy, the center is already experimenting with practical use of low-altitude technology with SF Express Group, an express delivery giant, though Li refrained from elaborating, merely adding that Qingpu is a mecca for delivery services.

In the center, reporters witnessed how logistics workers can hone their vehicle-navigating skills in a VR environment, with their performance monitored and assessed real-time, to minimize deviations in actual work.

"In a real life scenario, even a slight collision with the aircraft by the service vehicle would be disastrous, but in the VR environment, workers could fully experience vicariously," a manager said.

In another space, a team of flight attendants were rehearsing the correct steps in coping with an emergency situation when they have to evacuate by sliding down an airbag.

The center, with a construction area in excess of 180,000 square meters, is a major training base for professional talent and cadres for China Eastern, combining industry, training, research, and application.

The Action Plan aims to accelerate the planning and construction of new city hubs and a number of major corridors, so as to strengthen the connection between internal roads in new cities among different urban clusters, by rendering stronger support for prioritized areas.

In view of the changing demographic, the supply of affordable housing should be strengthened, to better meet the needs of the talent.

Particular attention will be paid to ecology, as evidenced in the 13.2 kilometers (Phase I) of greenway around the new city which was completed last year. The restful exercise lane, flanked by trees and bamboos, will ultimately measure 46 kilometers by the end of the Phase III. The phase I carries a price tag of 585 million yuan (US$81 million).

Lying to the east of Taihu Lake, the formerly chiefly agricultural district of Qingpu is criss-crossed by waterways, and dotted with ponds and lakes, as typical of southern towns.

The district is also unique in bordering both Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces, making it a place of choice in the current drive for Yangtze River Delta integration.

The plan also vows to promote the renovation of old urban areas, as part of the accelerated drive to avoid inefficient industrial land in new cities, and to boost the reserve of land resources.

The last press tour stop at Zhidao Academy and Dayin Bookmall was a case in point. The academy is a classical renovation of old urban space with a view to providing leisure space to nearby residents.

When I asked Shen Haitao, an acquaintance of mine in Qingpu, whether he knew about the academy, he replied: "Of course. It's a short distance from my home, and we prefer to walk to the academy after supper."

The 4,000-square-meter space also provided tourists an ideal place to linger, or to chat over a cup of coffee, in a charming, seemingly antiquated space.

As an important strategy to make better use of the city's limited urban space, the five new cities in Shanghai have developed by leaps and bounds in recent years, with their combined industrial output value already hitting nearly one trillion yuan, or a quarter of the city's total.

Among them, Qingpu, Nanhui, and Jiading new cities had achieved double-digit growth in their niche segments.