Abstract
Success in fighting a pandemic such as COVID-19 requires global collaboration. However, local leadership and efficient operations are the most critical contributing factors for saving lives and restoring urban normalcy. This chapter examines the intertwining relationship among urban form, neighbourhood governance, and the commercialised real estate management sector, and explores the dynamic impact this relationship generates on urban resilience. The chapter presents three effective urban approaches that facilitated China’s efforts to fight the pandemic: the formal quality of urban form and mixed-use nature of Chinese cities contributed to urban resilience; a territorial-based institutional structure with grid management rendered accountability of urban governance and formed an effective state–society synergy with full-scale public participation; and the recently emerged commercialised real estate management sector, accompanied with technology, offered merits in curbing the spread of the virus. In summary, the various characteristics through which Chinese cities and neighbourhoods were spatially formed, administratively governed, and financially operated helped save lives and shaped resilient multi-dimensional urban environments.
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Notes
- 1.
A green code gave users unhindered access to public spaces, a yellow code indicated that the person might have come into contact with a person with a COVID-19 infection and therefore had to be confined to their homes or an isolation facility, and a red code was assigned to users infected with the virus.
- 2.
The conversion rate used was 7.65 Chinese renminbi (RMB) to 1 euro (EUR).
- 3.
WeChat is the most popular multipurpose mobile social platform in China. Developed by Tencent, WeChat combines into one platform many functions available on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, including messaging, social media, online phone communication, and mobile payment app. First released in 2011, WeChat became the world’s largest stand-alone mobile app in 2018 with more than one billion active users.
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Wang, B., Zhou, R. (2022). Urban Form, Neighbourhood Governance, and Real Estate Management: Chinese Cities Fighting a Pandemic. In: Just, T., Plößl, F. (eds) European Cities After COVID-19. Future of Business and Finance. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-89788-8_5
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