Speaker: Zheng Shiling, professor of Tongji University, member of the Chinese Academy of Science

The problems of local cities also need our reconsideration. Our city is now in a great leap forward period and sometimes it lacks a goal and "big planning".

According to statistics from 1952 to 2002, the floor area of new construction is about 600 million square metres, nearly equal to 10 or 15 old Shanghais before 1949.

During the period 1995-2001, about 30 million square metres of historical buildings have been demolished, more than 70 per cent of the historical buildings have been demolished for large-scale urban construction. If things continue in this mode, the result will be the loss of urban culture and the historical context will disappear soon. With the increase of economic development, Shanghai's identity and position as cultural centre of China, will be gone.

According to statistics, Shanghai is now a totally new city. New construction is scattered all over the city, not just the in the Lujiazui and Hongqiao areas. Such a huge number of new buildings doesn't create a new ideal city, let alone one that is a model to the world.

As to the reconstruction of old areas, the city still lacks the economic power to build such a large area into a high-quality one.

So we should slow down our reconstruction in the downtown area and pay more attention to the places outside the Inner Ring Road or even outside the Outer Ring Road. Combined with the development of rail transportation, the city can choose one or several sites covering 5 to 10 square kilometres, or even more, to develop an ideal city.