China Planning Network (CPN)

CPN China Week Opening Ceremony &

CPN Urban Housing Congress

Beijing July 14-15, 2008

Congress Theme:

Along the course of its rapid urbanization and urban housing reform, China has been facing both issues similar to those encountered during the history of urban development in the West, and those that are new to our era and unique to China. The CPN Urban Housing Congress aims

• to present to China: the variety of models that urban housing are managed and subsidized in world cities and their corresponding implications on affordability, social inclusion and equity, urban structure, life style, energy consumption and environment impacts; and the cutting edge thinking on housing research, technology and policies;

• present to the West: the latest development and challenges in China's urban housing and the research chances these development has brought to the world’s academic community, and the opportunities that policy innovations can be implemented in China

The main question the Housing Congress aims to ask is: is the urban housing price in China too high? Can Chinese families, both urban residents and rural migrants, afford it? Are government policies to stabilize housing price effective? Five points of view will be examined in this Congress:

• Urban households: the house price to income ratio has shifted from disproportionately low in China prior to the housing reform to disproportionately high nowadays—e.g. 9.4: 1 in Beijing in 2005, which is much higher than the 5: 1 ratio considered by World Bank as affordable for local residents or 3:1 by the United Nations. How have Chinese families managed to afford housing? By distorting their expenditure pattern in favor of housing, by inter-generational borrowing, by significant mortgaging…?

• Rural migration to cities: if it is difficult for urban residents to afford housing, it is almost impossible for the rural migrants, who not only cannot afford commercial housing but also are not eligible for affordable housing provided by local government. Is affordable rental housing a good long-term solution? If so, what options are there for delivering it effectively?

• Central government: the State Council and Ministry of Construction and 8 other ministries have been jointly publishing series of national policies aiming to stabilize the housing price. Have these macro controls and regulations been effective? Looking from a larger context, how do we evaluate the whole transition from welfare housing provision to market-driven housing provision? Have we recognized the boundaries beyond which the market mechanism will fail and has failed? And how shall we respond to it sufficiently?

• Local government: local governments control all the land and land inflation has opened up a new channel of funds for city development. 30-40% of local government revenues are estimated to originate from property, either directly or indirectly. They have powerful incentives to promote the property sector as a means to raise revenues. Is reforming local government finance one key aspect to the housing price problem?

• Experience from outside: what aspects of efforts to develop affordable housing in other countries can be considered relevant for China?

Confirmed Speakers:

• Alain Bertaud, independent consultant, former Principal Urban Planner, World Bank
• Rachel Bratt, Professor and Former Chair, Department of Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning, Tufts University
• Xavier Briggs, Associate Professor of Sociology and Urban Planning, MIT, Former
  Acting Assistant Secretary, U.S. HUD
• Yung-Ho Chang, Professor and Head, Department of Architecture, MIT
• Wenzhen Chen, Assistant Professor, Tongji University
• Randall Crane, Acting Director and Professor of Urban Planning, Institute of Transportation Studies, UCLA
• Peter Fong, Director of EMBA & Executive Programmes, Faculty of Business & Economics, the University of Hong Kong
• Piper Gaubatz, Associate Professor, Program Head for Geography, Dept. of Geosciences, University of Massachusetts
• Yunchang Gu, Vice President, China Real Estate Association
• Lawrence Hannah, Former Lead Economist, World Bank
• Bohumil Kasal, Hankin Chair of Residential Building Construction, Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Professor of Architectural Engineering, Director of Research, Pennsylvania Housing Research Center
• Siming Li, Chair Professor in Geography, Director of Centre for China Urban and Regional Studies, Hong Kong Baptist University
• Xiaodong Li, President and CEO, Union Trust, China
• Meisheng Nie, President, China Real Estate Chamber of Commerce; Chairman, Housing Industrilization Office, Ministry of Construction
• Robert Olshansky, Professor, Dept of Urban & Regional Planning, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• Hugo Priemus, Professor and former Dean, Faculty of Technology, Policy and Management,
  Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands
• Nicolas Retsinas, Director, Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies, Former U.S. HUD Assistant Secretary
• Bish Sanyal, Professor of Urban Development and Planning, Chair of Faculty, MIT
• Claudine Stuchell, Department of Urban Studies and Planning, MIT
• Lawrence Vale, Head and Professor of Urban Studies and Planning, Department of Urban Studies and Planning, MIT
• Dave Wetzel, Consultant - "Transforming Communities". Former Vice-Chair Transport for London. Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport.
• Fulong Wu, Professor of East Asian Planning and Development, Director of Urban China Research International Network, Cardiff University, UK
• Liang Zhao, lecturer, Department of Urban Studies and Planning, MIT

Congress Agenda:

Congress Logistics:
The CPN Urban Housing Congress will be held as part of the CPN China Week 2008, the 5th year continuation of CPN’s effort to fuse western knowledge on urban development with China’s unprecedented experience. CPN China Week 2008 will be held in Beijing on July 14-19, including six main activities:

• CPN Urban Housing Conference 2008...July 14-15 (detail)
• CPN World Planning School Open House...July 15 (detail)
• CPN Cross-Cultural Education Roundtable...July 15 (detail)
• CPN City Resilience Roundtable: Rebuilding and Restoration After Sichuan Earthquake..July 16 (detail)
• CPN Sichuan Field Trip and Chengdu Forum...July 17-18 (detail)
• CPN Urban Transport Congress 2008...July 19 (detail)

Website and registration
The official CPN website: http://ChinaPlanningNetwork.org
About CPN: http://chinaplanningnetwork.org/english/about.htm
CPN 2004: http://mit.edu/dusp/chinaplanning/cpn2004/
CPN 2005: http://mit.edu/dusp/chinaplanning/cpn2005/program.htm
CPN 2006: http://chinaplanningnetwork.org/english/CPN3rdAnnual.htm
CPN 2007: http://www.chinaurbantransport.com/english/fur_ppt.htm
CPN China Week registration: http://chinaplanningnetwork.org/english/Registration.htm 

Venue and hotel
The CPN China Week will be held in Tsinghua University, Haidian District, Beijing, China. The guest hotel is Wenjin Hotel, which is 10 minutes walk away from Tsinghua campus.
Wenjin Hotel
Tsinghua Science Park, Haidian District, Beijing, China
Tel: +86-10-62525566
http://www.hotelwenjin.com

Welcome to attend the CPN China Week and thank you very much for your continued support to China Planning Network!

Best,
Ming Guo, Zhan Guo, Jinhua Zhao
Executive Commissioners
China Planning Network
http://www.ChinaPlanningNetwork.org/

Faculty Advisor
Lawrence J. Vale, Head and Professor of Urban Design and Planning
Department of Urban Studies and Planning
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

About CPN
China Planning Network (CPN) was established in 2004 and has since advanced from simply an academic interest group to become an independent voice that affects the education, research, practice and policies in China’s urban development. CPN has moved forward on its mission to systematically introduce western knowledge and experiences to China and more importantly CPN has started pursuing its vision of cultivating China's own discourse on urban development. As MIT President Susan Hockfield wrote in 2006: "Through the efforts of the China Planning Network, MIT and the Department of Urban Studies and Planning, continue to lead the world to bring the advanced knowledge on urban planning and development to bear on China's urbanization challenges."  

For information about CPN, please visit: www.ChinaPlanningNetwork.org

Contact Methods:
Organizing Committee MIT Office:
Jinhua Zhao: jinhua@mit.edu Tel: (857) 350-0079
Zhan Guo: guozhan@mit.edu Tel: (617) 230-4090
Room 7-337, the Department of Urban Studies and Planning
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, MA 02139 U.S.A.

Organizing Committee Beijing Office:
Ming Guo: guoming@mit.edu Tel: +86-(0)10-82150296 Fax: +86-(0)10-82150269
Block A, Room 607, Building 8, Science Park Tower
Tsinghua Science Park, Beijing, China