On December 14th, 2007, National Development and Reform Commission issued the Notice on Sanctioning Wuhan City Cluster and Chang-Zhu-Tan City Cluster as National Comprehensive Supporting Reform Trial Areas to Build a Resource Conserving and Environment Friendly Society (Chang-Zhu-Tan stands for the three cities in Hunan Province,Changsha, Zhuzhou and Xiangtan.). According to the Notice, approved by the State Council, Chang-Zhu-Tan City Cluster has at last become a national comprehensive supporting trial area in 25 years and then reform and development of Hunan begins to step into a new era!

Overview

Chang-Zhu-Tan City Cluster, consisting of Changsha, Zhuzhou and Xiangtan and located in the northeast of Hunan Province, is the joint area of Beijing-Guangzhou Economic Belt, Pan Pearl Delta Economic Zone and the Yangtze River economic belt and has an advantage in traffic conditions. Each two of them is less than 40 kilometers apart, their economic development level is outstanding in Hunan and is therefore the core pole of economic growth of Hunan.

In order to bring urban areas of the three cities together, Hunan provincial government moved its office from the center of Changsha to the south in 2004. Taking the opportunity, Changsha constructed the Furong Road in the south and quickened the construction of road network of the ecological new city in the Tianxin District so as to accelerate the link with Xiangtan and Zhuzhou; Zhuzhou built Zhuzhou Avenue to link with Xiangtan; Xiangtan reconstructed Shaoshan Avenue and Bantang Avenue to link with Changsha. At present the three new cities are rising gradually. Depending on the geographical advantage of the new administrative center after the relocation, the three cities joining together are speeding up the development of their joint area in order to form a shared transportation hub and urban central area. Taking advantage of their strong appeal and radiation function, the three cities not only help each other forward and harmoniously develop, but also rapidly realize land value increase and promote their integration.

The three cities at present have established 3 state-level development zones and 2 national industrial bases through resource integration and industrial layout. From 2001 to 2006, the annual average GDP growth rate of the three cities reached 13.6%, and GDP of Changsha is expected to reach 200 billion yuan for the year of 2007. In 2007, economy of three cities kept forceful development momentum. In the early three years, three cities general production value of 243.07 billion yuan takes up 39.3% of the province, import, export and actually employed foreign capital all over 60%. The role of the core pole of economic growth is further manifested.

In the reconstruction of old city in the Xinhe Delta located in the joint area of Xiangjiang River and Liuyang River, Changsha made full use of the natural fall of the delta land by employing the idea of freeing the city from congestion, separating people and vehicles and introducing three-dimensional traffic, avoiding traffic jams and increasing the capacity of building land in the delta from 2.0 to 2.8 equivalent to saving 58.62-hectare land. Therefore, the entire 1178-mu (about 78.5 hectares) land in Xinhe Delta becomes the land king of the whole country.

In terms of environment-treating pattern,in recent years, Hunan has treated the three cities as a unit and put forward the method of examining responsibility for environment-simultaneous- treatment objective and established an environmental law-enforcement-supervision branch independent of the three cities.

Since the tenth five-year plan of Hunan was proposed, GDP in the three cities has increased by nearly 1.5 times , the quality of environment has kept increasing as well as stable. Changsha has become the third state-level Forest City and Zhuzhou has eventually removed the bad reputation as one of the ten most air-polluted cities in whole country and in May 2007, Zhuzhou Chemical Industry Group was formally incorporated into China National Salt Industry Corporation and then began to step onto a benign developing road.

Strategic Layout

According to the Chang-Zhu-Tan City Cluster Area Planning released by Hunan provincial government, the core area of the three cities is to be constructed as one primary, two secondary, with a green core in their middle, which respectively refers to Changsha urban area (one), Xiangtan and Zhuzhou urban areas(two), with an ecological green core in their middle. Set in a good ecological environment and taking the north, southwest and southeast functional areas of Chang-Zhu-Tan as the primary and secondary cores and the joint area of the three cities as the green core, Changsha urban area is accentuated as the (north) core of the cores, as a net-shaped urbanized area in which the clusters in the urban center and scattered districts and small towns are relatively perfect in composition and development , regional infrastructure network is developed, spaces in all kinds develop harmoniously and the ecological cycle is benign.

Outline of the Eleventh Five-year Plan for Hunan Provincial National Economy and Social Development imposes specific and clear requirements on the development of Chang-Zhu-Tan: to further promote the prior development of the one-point, one-line area headed by Chang-Zhu-Tan by strengthening the practice and project-construction of the Chang-Zhu-Tan economic integration planning and by establishing provincial high-tech development zones, advanced manufacturing industry development zones, large enterprise cluster areas and strategic investor cooperation zones so as to make Chang-Zhu-Tan the influential city cluster and pole of economic growth in the whole country. In accordance with the plan, during the five years, the urbanization level reaches over 57%, and the 3+5 city cluster is developed.(3+5 city cluster refers to the cluster of Yueyang, Changde, Yiyang, Loudi and Hengyang, centered by Chang-Zhu-Tan and with a radius of one-hour commute. )

(1)Building a Resource-Conserving Society

By promoting economical utilization of energy and non-renewable resources and the development of a circular economy would ensure proper exploitation of resources and sustainable utilization.

--Proper exploitation of resources

Direction: To strengthen the guidance of government, innovate new economy patterns, spread economy technology and improve resources utilization efficiency

Focus:

1) To vigorously save energy by optimizing industrial structure,decreasing high energy-consuming industries to realize structural energy-saving; by developing and spreading energy-efficient technology to realize technological energy-saving; by strengthening system construction, supervision and management in resource exploitation, production, transportation and consumption so as to realize management energy-saving; by popularizing such key energy-saving projects as energy-saving construction and green illumination; by paying close attention to key high energy-consuming enterprises and industries like steel, nonferrous metals, electric power and traffic to guide businesses and civil trades in energy-saving; by strictly enforcing the energy-saving laws and the energy consumption standards to improve relevant policies and mechanisms;

2) To strengthen minerals-saving by regulating mineral resource exploitation order, strengthening qualification authentication and permit management, forbidding unauthorized mining and resolutely preventing five small mines; by making comprehensive use of poor minerals , tailings, para-genetic and associated minerals, guiding and encouraging finer processing of minerals, controlling ordinary mining, ore-dressing and export of raw minerals;

3)To strengthen water-saving by making and changing industrial water consumption quota, popularizing water-saving devices, apparatuses and technology, forcefully reconstructing water-saving in large- and medium-scaled irrigated areas and urban water distribution network and by starting water-saving projects;

4) To forcefully save land by efficiently protecting and using national land resources, strictly controlling the increase in non-agricultural land and efficiently using the available land; by vigorously reclaiming land discarded by factories and mines and encouraging arrangement of discarded rural land ; by developing urban land-saving houses and public buildings;

5)To strengthen capitalized management of forest resources by exploring and establishing mechanisms of paid use and proper compensation for forest resources;

6)To spread efficient use of wood, cement and metal materials by prohibiting nonfunctional excessive packing, regulating and reducing production and use of disposable products.

--Development of cyclic economy

Direction: with the purpose of reduction, reuse and recycle and with improving resource utilization rate at the core, to pay attention to resources-saving and pollution- reducing in all aspects like production and life.

Focus:

1) To tighten the management of clear production in such key industries as metallurgy, nonferrous metal, coal, power, chemical, building material, paper-making industries and intensify technological innovation to help save energy;

2)To establish circular economic industrial parks so as to push forward the extension of and coupling among industries, enterprises, industry chains, product chains;

3)To develop scrap recycling markets, supporting recycling of scrap metals, domestic appliances, computers, batteries and other electronic products;

4)To attach importance to the experimental cyclic economy cities like Miluo, Yongxing and Yiyang, explore developing patterns of cyclic economy;

5)To improve fiscal and tax policies for developing cyclic economy, establish charge systems for recycling all kinds of effluents;

6)To strengthen safe treatment of non-recyclable waste to reduce environmental pollution.

1. Electric power planning

In the planning period, 5 power plants are to be newly built and enlarged in Chang- Zhu-Tan and at the same time power groups not according with the national industrial policies are to be eliminated.

2. Grid planning

1) 500 KW by 2020, 11 500kV substations with the main substation's capacity of about 19 million kV will have been built in Chang-Zhu-Tan.

2) 220 KW.  The capacity of the main transformer in the 220KW substation is recently equipped with a ratio of 1.85 of power capacity to load and then the total capacity amounts to about 14,000,000 kV with about 40 substations; in the long term, the main transformer capacity is equipped with the ratio of 1.75 and then the total capacity comes to about 26,300,000 KW with about 60 substations.

The 220 KW power grid is arranged in the form of ring network plus radiation and a 220 KW double-ring network is formed in the urban areas of Chang-Zhu-Tan.

3) Power-transmission line corridor

The 500kv line should stretch, in principle, out of building land in town planning with each single line corridor 60-75 meters wide; the 220kv line with the single line corridor 30-40 meters wide may stretch into the internal urban areas in view of need but the relations between the line corridor and surrounding land should be coordinated and the line can not go through the streets obliquely.

3. Natural gas

Coordinating with the project transmitting gas from Sichuan to Hunan, natural gas transmission system is to be built in Chang-Zhu-Tan area.

4. Liquefied natural gas

Recently, the four cities, Changsha, Zhuzhou, Xiangtan and Liling, using natural gas will keep present liquefied natural gas storage and filling equipment; small and medium-sized cities like Xiangxiang and Shaoshan will have new 20,000-30,00-ton storage and filling equipment per year.

5. Water providing

Water source cities will in recent period still have Xiang River as their water source and consider transferring water from near reservoirs in a proper period, then form a multi-source water providing system; reservoirs like Shuihumiao, Zhushuqiao and Guanzhuang as water-sources of cities are to be strictly protected. New water providing is recently solved by enlarging present water works. Among the present 18 water works, 15 are to be reserved and 7 enlarged with the new water-providing capacity of 1,025,000 tons per day. In the future, 5 new water works are to be built with the capacity of 1,870,000 tons per day.

6. Water source protection

The first-grade urban drinking water source protection zone, is specified by the water works, ranges from 1000 meters upstream to 200 meters downstream(100meters downstream for a few water works) including certain land by the banks. A certain range beyond the zone is considered the second-grade protection zone.

(2)Building an Environment-Friendly Society

By putting equal stress on ecological protection, pollution prevention and treatment, strengthening supervision and comprehensive treatment would accelerate building an environment friendly society.

--Ecological construction

Direction: To stick to the principles of prior protection and natural recovery, practice limited, orderly and compensated development, reinforce natural ecological protection and reverse the tendency of ecological deterioration starting from the root causes.

Focus: To build ecological projects such as protection of ecological and commonweal forests and conversion of farmland to forests, strengthen the ecological construction in the Western Hunan, practice controlled protection and intensify soil erosion treatment in important ecological functional areas like key water conservation areas and soil erosion prevention areas-nature reserves, scenic spots, forest parks, drinking water source areas, wet areas of Dongting Lake, the upstream of four rivers in Hunan, tighten the ecological environmental protection of mines and establish an ecological compensation system on the principle of who develops protects and who benefits compensates.

---Environmental protection

Direction: To make great effort to solve the conspicuous problems which affects economic and social development especially those that seriously harm people's health and safety; tighten the prevention & treatment of air and water pollution and pollution control in urban and rural areas so as to improve environmental quality.

Focus:

1)To advance prevention & treatment of air and water pollution including particles in the air, especially the fine ones, by strengthening the treatment of sulfur dioxide in coal-burning power plants, and  by controlling pollution in such main rivers as Xiangjiang River and Tongting Lake and especially pollution treatment in such industrial and mining areas as Qingshuitang in Zhuzhou, Zhufugang (Yuetang) in Xiangtan, Shuikoushan in Hengyang, Sanchaji in Changsha and Huayuan in Western Hunan;

2)To promote industrialization and marketing of urban waste water and garbage, stably improve waste water treatment rate, and properly deal with domestic garbage, medicine wastes and hazardous wastes and strengthen pollution control in towns;

3)To develop ecological and organic agriculture and control pollution resulting from improper use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides;

4)To conduct a comprehensive management of key mining areas, accelerate recovery of environment in mining areas and reinforce law enforcement;

5)To intensify publicity and education concerning environmental protection to raise public awareness;

6)To strengthen protection of wild animals and plants to maintain biodiversity;

7)To improve local laws and regulations of environmental protection and reinforce supervision of law enforcement.

1. Urban greening

Emphasis should be put on the following planning according to the present conditions of urban greening and the systematic structural features of green land:

1) Establish a protection forest system in urban areas with a blueprint of an overall urban plan and an urban forest ecological environment plan.

2) Construct as a focus the greening system along the banks of Xiangjiang River in the urban areas so that the section of the river in Changsha urban area becomes the ecological green corridor between west river groups and the central urban area; establish green corridors along the Beijing-Zhuzhou Expressway, Beijing-Guangzhou Railway and Changsha-Xiangtan Road and the Liancheng Road by the west river in the planning and build a greening system surrounding the places of relics and along the urban streets, with the stress on selection and breeding of the right type of trees and enlarging the green area.  According to relevant planning, forbid to cut forests and damage woods, especially strengthen the protection of natural forest resources and raw vegetation, which should be treated in the same way to nature reserves, forest parks and scenic spots; optimize wood variety structure and composition, vigorously develop economic woods, water conservation forests and scenic woods and reduce woods for material use; pay attention to the problem of soil erosion when cultivating hillside land and forbid cultivating mountainous and hilly areas easy to cause soil erosion; plant all waste hills or unclaimed lands suitable for afforestation, convert the low farmland into lakes; replace vertical farming with horizontal farming, alternate between farming and growing woods and develop produces with high quality and characteristics; actively take project and biological measures in key areas of soil erosion.

2. Atmospheric environment

Adjust the energy structure by introducing high-quality energy such as natural gas, increase the proportion of electric power in energy structure, decrease coal final consumption, strengthen the treatment of enterprises creating heavy air pollution and make more effort in pollution treatment according to the national regulations.

3. Water environment

Functions of waters environment in Chang-Zhu-Tan area are divided into 9 categories; first-grade drinking water source protection zones and nature protection zones are to be controlled by II-water body standard (Surface Water Environment Quality Standard, GB3838-2002, the same below) and others by III-V water body standard. Specific water environment protection measures are as follows:

1)Strengthen the urban domestic sewage collection and treatment.

2)Properly arrange sewage treatment factories and drainage vents.

3)Properly make industrial wastewater drainage standards.

4. Solid waste collection and treatment

Solid waste collection and treatment in Chan-Zhu-Tan area should stick to the principle of 'recycling, reuse and reduction' treatment, actively popularize classified collection, recycle and comprehensively use resources.

Objectives

By 2010, energy consumption per ten-thousand-yuan GDP will have decreased by 20%, the comprehensive recovery rate of the mineral resources increased to 48%, the total amount of cultivated land reached 56,580,000 MU, the installed power generation capacity come to about 4,100,000 KW, local power taken up about 55% of the load need; urban water waste treatment rate no less than 70%, recycling treatment rate of the urban domestic garbage no less than 60%; treatment rate of discarded wastes reached 75%, the control rate of the industrial waste gas discharge 90%, that of industrial waste water discharge 85%; agricultural pollution been effectively controlled; in the eleventh five-year period,  new soil erosion- treatment area will come to 6000 square kilometers and  farmland for non-agricultural use been controlled within 18,000 hectares.

By 2020, the installed power generation capacity will have come to about 9,500,000 KW, local power taken up about 55% of the load need; public water providing capacity in cities in planning increased from 2,445,000 tons per day in 2000 to 5,350,000 tons per day,  3,130,000 tons per day in Changsha, 1,200,000 in Zhuzhou and 980,000 in Xiangtan; waste water treatment rate in cities amounted to 85% above; comprehensive utilization rate of industrial solid waste increased from 71.44% to 90% above and domestic garbage should have wholly realized recycled treatment.

Chang-Zhu-Tan will have to try to achieve the goal of 32,000-yuan GDP per person in 2010, and then becomes the important city cluster in the middle and west of China and a strategic pole of growth for the rise of the middle of China. By 2020, Chang-Zhu-Tan city cluster will have become a modernized and ecological one of much national importance, with appropriate space layout, sound urban functions, perfect infrastructure, clear industrial characteristics and beautiful living environment, GDP per person in the three cities will have come to 80,000 yuan, with the population of 10,000,000 in the core of the cluster. Therefore, Chang-Zhu-Tan city cluster will become a new national pole of economic growth and a good example for resource-conserving and environment-friendly city clusters.

Prospects

It's an important national arrangement for reform trial areas and a strategic layout for development of city clusters for Chang-Zhu-Tan city cluster to be sanctioned to be a national resource-conserving and environment-friendly society building comprehensive supporting trial area. Therefore, popularity of and attention to the city cluster will be increased rapidly and its role as a pole of economic growth will soon be greatly strengthened. More science and technology, investment, talents and education at home and abroad will enter into the projects for building a two-oriented society in Chang-Zhu-Tan city cluster sooner and advance the industrial construction in the cluster to transform into a resource-conserving and environment-friendly one, which, in turn, will further promote optimization of the environment in the city cluster, facilitate massive introduction and creation of advanced technology, develop some advantageous industries in a large scale so as to realize reverse development of industrialization, which refers to new industrialization starting from the information and includes three aspects: first, to speed up developing high-tech industries. New materials, biological medicine, electronic information with good foundations in Hunan, once further improved, can overtake those in developed areas completely; second, to reconstruct with high-tech such industries in Hunan as heavy machinery, iron and steel ,automobile, oil chemistry, building materials and form advanced manufacturing industry with optical, mechanical and electronic integration; third, to reform traditional agriculture with industrialization and practice agricultural industrialization by developing specialized, garden-style cultivated, standardized, mechanized, ordered, high efficient modern agriculture and food industry. In view of correlation and association between space and industry in building a two-oriented society, construction of such a society in Chang-Zhu-Tan city cluster has to be integrated with the five surrounding cities--- Hengyang, Loudi, Yueyang, Yiyang and Changde to be complementary to each other and planned as a whole. By doing that, a new industrialized city cluster belt, associated with Guangzhou to the south, Wuhan to the north, Chongqin to the west and Shanghai to the east, will be formed and able to drive economic development of Hunan to leapfrog. Therefore, Chang-Zhu-Tan, from the perspectives of promoting building a two-oriented society or development of city cluster, is a reform vehicle with great potential, a great opportunity and strong driving force for building a modern pole of economic growth in Hunan-Chang-Zhu-Tan 3+5 City Cluster Belt.

By 2020, urbanization level of Chang-Zhu-Tan area will have ranged from 60% to 62%, the population in the core with an area of 4500 square kilometers from 7,000,000 to 7,500,000 and GDP per person will have reached 80,000 yuan, and Chang-Zhu-Tan area will have become one of the important grouped super-urbanized areas in Central China and been of strong competition capacity at home.

Translator: Pang Yuehui

Chinese source: Official Website of the CZT City Cluster