Building a civil city
Translated by Beverly
Photos by Yao Fan



"全国文明城市"的殊荣, 令每一位厦门人深感骄傲, 也更加热爱这座美丽而温馨的现代都市.

The Central Civil Society Commission of the CPC has just revealed the list of "National Civil Cities". Zhangjiagang, Xiamen, Qingdao, Dalian, Ningbo, Shenzhen, Baotou, Zhongshan and Yantai are all on the list. This title adds yet another item to Xiamen's roll of honors, which also include "National City of Hygiene", "National Habitat Scroll of Honor Award", "International Garden City" and "UN Habitat Scroll of Honor Award".



Assessment criteria

This is the first nationwide assessment since the launch of the campaign to build civil cities over 20 years ago. Altogether 116 cities applied for this award. With the issue of the Central Civil Society Commission's "Assessment System for Civil Cities", the whole process is completed with a view to making sure that the results are fair and reliable.

The assessment covers 7 areas: efficient administration, uniform enforcement of law, regulated markets, cultural environment, living environment, sustainable development, city improvement campaigns. It involves 119 separate indices, every one of which is closely related to city life and represents the aspiration to stronger society. The assessment was comprehensive and included collecting reports, unannounced inspections, in-depth investigations and secret visits.



Remarks on Xiamen

Members of the Provincial Assessment Delegation have all noted how impressed they were by Xiamen's efforts. Shi Zumei, head of the Delegation, said that Xiamen's work was based on the needs of the people and demonstrated the government's concern for the residents of the city.

He said, during the inspection, he realized that Xiamen had made the campaign part of its overall plan for developing the city and that the campaign had brought real benefits to its citizens. Some of the government's measures, such as education for migrants from other provinces, raising public awareness of psychological health and supporting the establishment of a corporate credit system, are groundbreaking. These initiatives provide valuable experience for the whole province and even the whole nation. He also spoke highly of the "charity supermarket" system which is gaining popularity all over the city.



Residents welcome campaign

According to a poll, 95.1% of city residents believe that "creating a civil city will bring benefits for residents".

As part of their assessment, the Provincial Assessment Delegation conducted a survey over three days. They distributed 3000 questionnaires to find out about local residents' knowledge and support for the campaign. Of the 29 questions on the questionnaire, 3 received positive answers from over 90% of respondents. 95.9% of residents knew that Xiamen was running for the title. 95.1% believed that creating a civil city would bring benefits to the residents. 92% thought that the public transport system in Xiamen was good. 89.5% of residents supported the campaign. 85.3% were concerned about the living conditions of migrant workers from outside the city. 85% knew the rules for improving civic morality.



Xiamen's campaign program

1. To publicly support and campaign to promote civic morality, paying particular attention to the ethical and moral education of the young and the ethical and political education of students.

2. Individual projects such as the "warmth project" for residential estates, the "new start project" for rural areas and the "satisfaction project" for businesses.

3. To improve city administration in order to set up a long-term system for the building and maintaining of a civil city; strengthening the management of the environment and sanitation, traffic, country fairs and markets, construction sites, cultural industries and public security.

4. To promote and carry out a program of public education about psychological health, to improve the psychological balance of residents, especially teenagers; to set up "charity supermarkets", which provide a new way to help the poor; to carry out a public evaluation of credit, which will strengthen the foundations of the credit system; to improve the training of migrant workers from other provinces and to educate new residents about Xiamen's civic environment.

5. To perfect the system of innovation as a real guarantee of the program to build a civil city.

Vocabulary
scroll 书卷
assessment 评估
migrant 移民
civic 市民的