some achievemen ts in housing and urbandevelo pment in

the face of rapid urbanization. Chapter 3 focuses on case studies

inYantai and describes the types of housingand urban upgrading initiatives

that havetaken place there. Finally, we examine howthe housing and

urban upgrading p rojectsare financed in China. One point to keepin mind

is that after the major 1988 reform,Chin a encouraged innovation in

housingand urban issues, resulting in many localvariatio ns in

policies. Therefore, Yantaisspeci fic experience cannot be seen as en-

capsulating all the approaches that havebeen adopted over the

years in China.In Yantai, four main types of housing andurban upgrading

projects can be found:Urban upgrading, focusing onimproved physical

environment sin neighbo urhoodsUpg rading of urban infrastructur efacilities

and services.Nei ghbourhood wideredevel opment.Mult i-sector

urban upgradingDi fferent types of urban upgrading entaildiffere

nt financing mechanisms . In Yantai,urban upgrading projects are generally fin

anced in the following ways:

Local Government Budgetary Fundi ng

Local government takesthe lead in financing partialupgra ding

projects such as

ExEcut ivE

summA Ry

ver the past two decades or so, Chinahas experienced one of the most rapidu

rbanization periods the whole world hasever been going through in history.

Thecountry s urban population trebled from172.45 million in 1978 to

523.76 millionin 2003. Statistics show that China has pro-vided

adequate housing for close to 100per cent of its urban population. Between199

8 and 2002, profitmaking developersp rovided housing for more than

54 millionhouse holds, which was about 150 timesthe annual

average target set by the UnitedNatio ns MDG target for slum

upgradingin the whole world. The total housing stockbuilt in China

during that five-year periodcould accommoda te the entire popula-tion of the USA,

or two countries as largeas Japan, four as large as the UK or 75times the

size of Singapore. This is quite amiracle.Thi s mission to Yantai was very

short,,consis ting of three days interviews andone days site visits. This

short duration isof course dwarfed by Chinas exceptionala chievements

. Documentin g every aspectof that miracle is outside the scope of

thisreport,, which focuses on a small aspect housing and urban

upgrading in Yantai.In order to give readers a broad pictureof the

background and context, the firstchapter examines the housing problems

inChina up until the late 1980s. The secondchapt er describes Chinas

subsequent awe-