月度归档： 2025 年 5 月

It is in Spring Festival travel rush, but many parts of the country have been hit by the strongest freezing rain and snow since 2009.

On February 5th, the 11th day of Spring Festival travel rush in 2024, the Central Meteorological Observatory continued to issue a frozen yellow warning. Large-scale rain, snow and freezing weather led to the closure of some expressways, the late suspension of high-speed trains and the large-scale delay of airports.

Many people’s way home has therefore become extremely tortuous and difficult. Some people were forced to stay on the expressway for a day and a night, and some people were delayed to start because of the suspension of trains and high-speed trains, but this could not stop the pace of going home.

On February 2, Huai ‘an, Jiangsu Province, in the section of Huai ‘an Canal Bridge in Huai ‘an City, Jiangsu Province, the road was temporarily congested due to heavy snow, and vehicles were slowly waiting to pass.

On February 4, 2024, in Shanghai, passenger trains on some high-speed rail lines were delayed to varying degrees, and the waiting room of Hongqiao Railway Station was crowded with people.

On February 4th, Wuhan, a Harmony train passed by the Yellow Crane Tower. Freezing rain and snow caused the pantograph of the train to "pull the arc", and sparks and lightning appeared at the top of the train.

In the ice and snow, people are still moving forward. Just because every footprint on the snow faces home, even if the road is rugged, it is still full of expectations for happiness and reunion.

On February 4th, Jinan, Shandong Province, a large-scale snowfall was ushered in on the day of beginning of spring in the lunar calendar, and white snow flowers were flying all over the sky in the night. At 20 o’clock, in the East Square of Jinan West Railway Station, the ground was covered with white snow, and passengers coming and going at the railway station left a string of footprints in the snow.

At noon on February 2, the passengers who got off at Luohe Railway Station in Luohe City, Henan Province braved the heavy snow and left the station.

On February 3, Zhengzhou Railway Station, people carried big bags and small bags on their backs, dragging their children to take their women home in the snow.

On February 4, Huaibei, Anhui, passengers left the station at Huaibei Railway Station.

On February 4th, the 10th day of Spring Festival travel rush, heavy snow greeted Wuhan. At Hankou Railway Station in Wuhan, people carry large and small pieces of luggage on their shoulders, some drag their children with them, and braved the snow and the cold to set foot on their way home.

On February 4, Huaibei, Anhui, passengers left the station at Huaibei Railway Station.

On February 3, Zhengzhou Railway Station, the little girl dragged her suitcase behind her parents, ready to go home by bus.

At noon on February 2, the passengers who got off at Luohe Railway Station in Luohe City, Henan Province braved the heavy snow and left the station with heavy luggage.

At noon on February 2, Luohe Railway Station in Luohe City, Henan Province, the rain and snow slipped, and the passengers who just got off the bus accidentally fell.

On February 3, Zhengzhou Railway Station, a woman took a car with her child on her back.

On February 4, Jinan ushered in a large-scale snowfall. In the East Square of Jinan West Railway Station, passengers coming and going from the railway station left a string of footprints in the snow.

On February 1 ST, Fuyang Station, Anhui Province, the returning Chinese New Year passengers walked past the snowy station square.

At 3 o’clock in the morning of February 3, a bus bound for Zhumadian was boarding at the North Square of Xinyang Railway Station in Henan Province, and the front of the bus was covered with icicles.

At 3 o’clock in the morning on February 3, a passenger dragged his luggage to the entrance of Xinyang Railway Station in the North Square of Henan Province.

On February 2, a child reached out and caught the snowflake in the crowd at Luohe Railway Station, Luohe City, Henan Province, and was very happy.

On February 4th, in Huai ‘an East Station, Jiangsu Province, it was snowy and snowy, and passengers carrying big bags and small bags were ready to embark on a journey.

On February 2 nd, in the snowstorm, passengers carrying big bags and small bags walked out of Zhengzhou East Station.

* The picture in this article is vision china

illustration

There seems to be no connection between the first two news items and the last one, but if you have heard the ins and outs of Taiwan Province’s Pinyin War, you may have some new knowledge about the origin between Taiwan Province and Chinese Pinyin.

Anyone who has been to Taiwan Province, or is familiar with Taiwan Province, knows that there are many pinyin systems in Taiwan Province, which are different from those in mainland China. The function of phonetic notation for Chinese characters is undertaken by phonetic symbols (that is, the system that looks a bit like Japanese katakana). The romanization of Chinese characters, Chinese Pinyin and Universal Pinyin are competing for who will undertake the function of Latin Chinese characters (that is, spelling Chinese characters with Latin letters). In particular, the contest between the latter two went beyond the linguistic category and rose to a political struggle, which caused widespread concern and heated discussion, so it was called "Pinyin War".

We are all familiar with Chinese Pinyin, so I won’t say much here. The Romance of Mandarin comes from the French Pinyin of Romance of Mandarin (commonly known as "Lao Guo Luo") formulated by the Preparatory Meeting for the Unification of Mandarin in 1926, and the compilers brought together many famous linguists such as Qian Xuantong, li jinxi, Zhao Yuanren and Lin Yutang. In 1928, Nanjing Kuomintang Government College published it as "Mandarin Phonetic Alphabet II", which was implemented simultaneously with phonetic alphabet. In 1986, Taiwan Province released the Second Form of Phonetic Symbols in Mandarin, commonly known as "New Country Luo". The universal pinyin scheme was first put forward in 1997 and was first used in Taipei City where Chen Shui-bian was the mayor in 1998. In 2002, the Ministry of Education of Taiwan Province adopted the "Chinese Pinyin System as Universal Pinyin", and replaced Chinese Pinyin with Universal Pinyin.

To tell the truth, Mandarin Roman and Universal Pinyin look similar to Chinese Pinyin, both of which use Latin letters, but there are differences in handling some problems, such as which letter to use to express some pronunciations, whether to add additional symbols, how to express Chinese tones, etc. For example, there is a Mucha area in Taipei, which is spelled "Muzha" in Chinese pinyin, "Mucha" in Roman characters and "Mujha" in common pinyin. Generally speaking, all countries or regions want to promote a standard spelling scheme, but different spellings often coexist in Taiwan Province for a long time.

The coexistence of various spelling schemes of Chinese characters is actually the result of political wrestling in Taiwan Province. Before the Chinese Pinyin Scheme was launched in mainland China in 1958, there were always many Latin schemes for Chinese characters in the Chinese character circle. However, after 1958, the spelling in mainland China was unified as Chinese Pinyin, while Taiwan Province, on the other side of the Taiwan Strait, still insisted on using Roman characters, the national language.

Even in Chinese Pinyin, which has been adopted by the United Nations Secretariat since 1979, it is used to transliterate the names and places of China in various Latin alphabets; Even though the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) stipulated in 1982 that Chinese Pinyin should be the international standard (ISO7098), Taiwan Province still used Roman characters to spell Chinese characters, and even released a set of "New Country Luo" which few people used. The competition between Roman characters in Mandarin and Chinese Pinyin may be regarded as a prelude to the Pinyin War.

About because Chinese Pinyin has gained more and more international recognition, due to the need of exchange of scientific, technological, cultural and academic materials, and in order to be in line with the world, in 1999, the administrative department of Taiwan Province authorities decided to adopt the Chinese Pinyin method in mainland China, and it was planned to make Chinese Pinyin a compulsory course for primary school students two years later.

If the story ends here, then the "Pinyin War" is also strangled in the cradle. It happened that in 2000, Chen Shui-bian came to power, implemented the "Taiwan independence" policy, and constantly "localized" and "de-China" in culture. In this context, the universal pinyin, which claims to be more suitable for spelling "Taiwanese Mandarin", has replaced the Chinese pinyin.

Such a move was fiercely criticized and resisted by all sides of the island, and the "Pinyin War" broke out. The main argument of the opponents in the debate is that the universal pinyin is not universal at all, and even it is difficult to pass in Taiwan Province, let alone meet the international standards. Although the official said that universal pinyin would not be enforced, counties and cities that can adopt "universal pinyin" can apply for huge subsidies, while those that adopt Chinese pinyin have no preferential policies. Despite this, some counties and cities do not buy it. For example, Taipei City, which once took the lead in universal Pinyin, insisted on using Chinese Pinyin.

Although the degree of cooperation among all parts of the island is not high, and the backlash from all walks of life has never been cut off, Taiwan Province officials have never given up their efforts to make universal pinyin "unify the world", and even prepared to make all place names adopt universal pinyin by the end of 2007. However, the situation suddenly changed in 2008, when Ma Ying-jeou became the leader of Taiwan Province region. On September 16th, the Ministry of Education of Taiwan Province decided to completely abandon the common pinyin and switch to the Chinese pinyin which is common with the mainland. The "Pinyin War" that lasted for many years finally came to an end.

Of course, although the war is over, there are still many battlefields to be cleaned. For example, in the past six years, the promotion of universal pinyin has left a lot of signboards, and it is naturally a large expenditure to replace them all. Therefore, it is inevitable that the two schemes will coexist for a long time.

Whether to use Chinese Pinyin or Universal Pinyin is originally just a linguistic question. It is not difficult to get an answer by comparing which scheme is more systematic, which scheme can accurately record and reflect Chinese pronunciation, which scheme is easier to teach and which scheme is more in line with international standards. In fact, Chinese pinyin and universal pinyin are roughly the same, with only a few differences. Linguists and users have their own judgment on which of the two schemes is better or worse. However, when Universal Pinyin was implemented, the two parties, the state and the pro-China, also criticized the Democratic Progressive Party authorities for "politics trumps professionalism and ideology overturns practicality". It is no wonder that when the relevant authorities in Taiwan Province decided to change the Chinese transliteration policy from "Universal Pinyin" to "Chinese Pinyin", the People’s Daily at that time was accompanied by an eight-word commentary: "A pragmatic move". (Wuyun)

Source: Beijing Evening News-North Night New Vision Network

From the perspective of economic, social and urban development, one of the important backgrounds of the transformation of old urban communities is that China’s urbanization has entered the second half. In 2019, China’s urbanization rate has reached 60.60%, and the per capita GDP has exceeded 10,000 US dollars, which is higher than the average level of upper-middle-income countries. The process of urbanization in China has entered between the second turning point (urbanization rate is 50%) and the third turning point (urbanization rate is 70%), and the urban development has shifted from incremental expansion to the era of upgrading stocks. Urban governance needs to pay special attention to people’s livelihood issues and promote urban transformation and development.

The city is a living body, and urban renewal is an eternal topic. The renovation of old residential areas embodies the development idea of "making people more convenient, more comfortable and better in urban life". As early as the central city work conference held in 2015, the central government has proposed to speed up the transformation of old communities. The the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee Conference held in July 2019 proposed to implement short-board projects such as the renovation of old urban communities, urban parking lots and the construction of urban and rural cold chain logistics facilities. The renovation of old residential areas has been accelerated.

According to the deployment, in 2020, the country plans to renovate 39,000 old urban communities, involving nearly 7 million residents, double the number in 2019, with the focus on residential areas completed before the end of 2000. This work has also become a new starting point for "stable investment" in urban and rural construction after the investment in shantytown renovation. The renovation of old residential areas can not only promote the organic renewal of the city, improve and upgrade the living environment of residents, but also create new investment and jobs, which is also of great significance to the current work of "six stabilities" and the implementation of "six guarantees".

At present, the year 2000 is generally used as the node to divide old communities and new communities. The residential quarters built before the end of 2000 generally have the demographic characteristics of "prominent aging phenomenon", the location characteristics of "adjacent to the old city center", the architectural entity characteristics of "five or six floors without elevators" and the social governance characteristics of "lack of property management". Therefore, there are housing safety problems, infrastructure problems, supporting services problems and community management problems in old residential areas that need to be solved.

Old residential areas have universal characteristics, and the reconstruction work needs to start with these universal characteristics and summarize the possible problems. The author believes that there are six main problems in the renovation of old residential areas: first, in community governance, residents’ cognition and demands for the renovation and upgrading of residential areas are different and difficult to coordinate; Second, in terms of updating hardware facilities, community supporting facilities are old, some facilities are lacking in functions, and some facilities even have hidden dangers; Third, the construction of public service facilities, land shortage and difficult to supplement; Fourth, in terms of standards and norms, relevant norms need to be further established and improved; Fifth, in the aspect of fund-raising, it is necessary to establish a fund mechanism that is reasonably shared by multiple subjects; Sixth, in terms of institutional mechanisms, relevant approvals need to strengthen coordination and cooperation.

The renovation of old residential areas needs system design, and the goal of "five modernizations" is clear: First, it is suitable for aging, including barrier-free design and installation of elevators; Second, greening, energy saving and consumption reduction, and integration with urban green development; Third, communization, promoting the leadership of party building and residents’ autonomy, and developing smart communities in governance; Fourth, the circle of life, including "15-minute life circle", "10-minute old people circle" and "5-minute children circle" and the construction of public charging piles and public laundry rooms; The fifth is human culture, which combines the transformation of old residential areas with the protection of local characteristics and the continuation of urban cultural context to promote urban organic renewal.

The renovation of old residential areas needs comprehensive planning, and the renovation objects and tasks can be classified. The renovation of old residential areas includes the following aspects: first, the renovation of single buildings to make them more solid and beautiful; The second is the transformation of residential environment, which makes residents’ life more quality; Third, all kinds of facilities are perfect, making residents’ lives more convenient; Fourth, the community management is perfect, which makes the community life more orderly.

According to this, the task of old residential area renovation can be divided into three categories: first, the basic category to meet the needs of safety and basic life, including municipal supporting infrastructure such as water, electricity and heating roads, and maintenance of public parts of buildings; The second is the improvement of life and convenience, including the improvement of residential environment and supporting facilities, the installation of elevators and the increase of parking facilities in conditional residential areas; The third is to improve the quality, which can be provided by the market, including the supply of community public service products, such as pension, nursery, health, etc. The provision of such public services must be based on the principle of adapting to local conditions and seeking truth from facts, and strive to provide residents with "menu-style" optional services.

The transformation of old residential areas needs the participation of social capital and the promotion of multi-subject and multi-source power. The executive meeting of the State Council held on April 14th this year proposed to establish a mechanism for the government, residents and social forces to share the reconstruction funds reasonably, with subsidies from the central government and special debts from local governments to encourage social capital to participate in the reconstruction operation. The transformation of old residential areas needs to solve the problem of "where does the funds come from", and it is necessary to establish a framework system of normalized maintenance and renewal funds.

Social governance must be innovated in the renovation of old residential areas. The transformation of old residential areas is an eternal theme in the process of urban development. Its core concept is to implement the people-centered development idea, the development concept of "innovation, coordination, green, openness and sharing" and the transformation principle of "seeking truth from facts and adapting to local conditions". As a livelihood project, the renovation of old residential areas must encourage the public to actively participate, listen to the opinions of all sectors of society in time, and form a good working atmosphere. Efforts should be made to solve the outstanding problems strongly reflected by the masses, so that the masses can have more sense of gain in the transformation of old residential areas. This process is bound to be a social governance process of mutual consultation, co-construction, co-governance and sharing.

(The author is a professor-level senior urban planner, former vice president of China Urban Planning and Design Institute and deputy secretary of the Party Committee)