LAST year, China’s rapid urbanization reached a symbolic milestone: for the first time in 30 years, more people live in cities than in the countryside. Whether it be the development of old towns or the rise of new cities, residence communities play a vital role in providing a humanistic backdrop to urban life. Quality of life in cities largely hinges on the state of one’s neighborhood.
　　Residence communities, or Shequ, are the fundamental building blocks in Chinese cities. Some are small, constituting a block of flats and a street; some are sprawling, and residents can find everything needed for comfortable living within their often-walled perimeters. In every case, citizens strongly identify with their residence community – happy communities means happy residents.
　　Residents’ committees are the backbone of residence communities. More than 400 million urban residents exercise their right of autonomy and selfdetermination on managing the economic, cultural and social affairs of their communities via residents’committees. Through such committees, residents play an active role in community life.
　　In the past, seeing a general practitioner was not so easy in China – separate GP clinics were non-existent, and a trip to a hospital was needed even for the most basic check-up. Recently, medical reform has set the stage to build up healthcare centers at the residence community level in order to broaden access and take the strain off hospitals.
　　As China’s elderly population grows, greater numbers of recreational and care centers focusing on seniors have been springing up in residence communities. These provide vital services to the elderly, many of whom opt to stay in their communities rather than head to retirement homes.
　　To cope with the problems faced by individual residents and ensure residence communities have a voice in the wider cityscape, property owners’ committees are emerging in new residential areas. Along with residents’ committees, property owners’ committees are helping to develop a new model for residence communities. On top of all this, social work is taking root in China, and increasing numbers of social workers dedicated to the public welfare cause are hitting the city streets. All these developments point to one thing: community life is blossoming.