12. Building the Urban Community Disaster Relief System in China

Data from the Ministry of Civil Affairs, http://​www.​mca.​gov.​cn/​.

The four communities named DRDCs were recommended by the Ministry of Civil Affairs, two from Beijing, and two from Jinan City, the capital of Shandong province. The one community without DRDC designation was from Laiwu city of Shandong province. The communities recommended by the Ministry of Civil Affairs are all DRDCs that have practiced disaster relief for several years and are regarded as communities with well-prepared emergency plans and rich experiences in disaster relief. They represent two types of communities. One type is new-built communities with modern buildings and business centers, such as the Min’an community in Beijing and the Shunyuan community in Shandong province. The other type is the old city reconstruction area. These include the Gulouyuan community of Dongcheng District in Beijing, composed of hutong area with very old siheyuan (Chinese traditional courtyard house in the shape of a quadrangle) crowded by several families, and the Youth Park community in Shandong province, also crowded by 34,433 people within 0.78 km² by the end of 2012. The one community without DRDC designation is Daihuayuan in Shandong province. It is transforming from a rural village and was chosen to be a contrasting community to find out if there are obvious gaps between DRDCs and non-DRDCs. It is also expected to be DRDC in the future. The directors of the residents committees and/or the secretary of the communities’ CPC branches were interviewed in the summer of 2012 by the author and her research team, sponsored by the Ministry of Civil Affairs, to find out the effects of the building of DRDCs.