The code of grassroots governance in the original demolition and original construction project of Beijing's first area-based centrally-produced community
Rule of Law Daily reporter Chen Lei
In a corner of Keyuan Community, Zhongguancun Street, Haidian District, Beijing, three multi-story buildings under construction have risen from the ground, one with 6 floors, one with 10 floors, and one with 11 floors.
According to public information, the Zhongguancun East District (including Keyuan Community) renovation project is the first demolition and original construction project of an old community owned by the central government in Beijing after the implementation of the "Beijing Urban Renewal Regulations". These three multi-story buildings rising from the ground are new buildings built on the same site after demolishing some of the tube buildings in the community. Compared with the surrounding low-rise towers, they stand out.
Ms. Li, a 78-year-old resident of Keyuan Community, has been paying attention to the construction progress of these buildings. Her family participated in the first batch of original demolition and original construction projects and was classified in Group A. During the construction period, Ms. Li often came to check on the progress.
On September 10, 2026, under the blue sky, Ms. Li happily told the reporter of "Rule of Law Daily": "The new building has been topped out."
From March 1, 2023, the "Beijing Urban Renewal Regulations" will come into effect, and there will be an institutional framework for the renovation of dilapidated buildings within Beijing. In August 2025, the "Opinions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council on Promoting High-quality Urban Development" was issued. It is proposed to steadily promote the renovation of urban villages and dilapidated old houses, and support the independent renewal and demolition of old houses to re-build them.
These three new buildings are a concrete practice of exploring new ways to demolish dilapidated houses and build new ones.
Determined as dilapidated building due to disrepair
Start rebuilding the original demolition of the original building
Keyuan Community is one of the earliest dormitories for scientists in Zhongguancun. It was first built in the 1950s. Since then, a total of 49 residential buildings have been built. According to residents' memories, the supporting facilities here were mature and the living conditions were excellent at that time.
In the 1980s, Ms. Li moved to Keyuan Community with her husband. At that time, her husband was a senior engineer at a research institute affiliated to the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and his work unit allocated two public rooms. In Ms. Li's opinion, this is the "yard of scientists". It is an honor to live here, and it is even more satisfying to live here for the rest of her life.
As the years passed, the two children moved out after getting married, leaving only Ms. Li and her husband living in the old house. After being eroded by wind and rain, the Tongzi Tower gradually became uninhabitable.
Ms. Li told reporters that in the past, the water room and bathroom in the Tongzi Building were connected together, and the sewers were often blocked. "Often when we are washing vegetables, washing rice, brushing teeth, gargling, and doing laundry, there will be a wave of dirty water over there. When there is a lot of dirty water, we need to put a few bricks in the water and step on the bricks to get in and out of the water room. In summer, when we cook in the corridor, dust falls from the roof; flies and mosquitoes flying nearby can accidentally fall into the rice cooker."
"It's hard to describe in words," Ms. Li said.
According to residents, some tube buildings do not have independent bathrooms and kitchens. There are two bathrooms on one floor. Residents have to line up to use the toilet early in the morning. They can only cook in the corridors. The sanitary conditions are worrying. Some tube buildings have been in disrepair for a long time and have been identified as Class C or D dangerous buildings.
Ms. Song, 72, has lived in Keyuan Community for 40 years. According to her recollection, Keyuan Community at that time had mature supporting facilities, including a bookstore, post office, grocery store, police station, primary school and kindergarten. You could also go to the community auditorium to watch movies every Saturday, and a ticket only cost 0.15 yuan. Her family of three lives in two public rooms and has early access to refrigerators and other appliances.
But as time goes by, the living conditions in Tongzilou deteriorate every year. Ms. Song remembers that one summer, the water pipe on her floor burst and the corridor was full of water. She and her neighbors took dustpans and buckets and spent an afternoon cleaning up the water. In addition to water pipes, sometimes home circuits will trip due to the aging of basic pipes.
In August 2023, Keyuan Community began the renovation work, and it was based on original demolition and original construction - after demolishing the old houses, new houses were rebuilt in the corresponding group according to the principle of not increasing the number of households and moderately improving the house area.
The reporter learned from interviews that due to the age of construction, aging of the main body of the house, damaged pipelines and other prominent problems. Faced with a living environment that is no longer livable, the people's call for improving living conditions is particularly urgent, and they continue to be reflected at high frequency through various channels. At the same time, as the core area of Zhongguancun, urban renewal is also a need for the overall development of the region.
Public opinion gains support first
Rely on the masses to rebuild in accordance with the law
According to public information, the Keyuan Community Renovation Start-up Area includes 22 residential buildings and a bungalow area. Based on the overall consideration of the residents’ willingness to renovate, the current situation of the houses, and the renovation conditions, as well as factors such as the planning and design conditions of the start-up area, the residents were divided into four groups: A, B, C, and D. There are a total of 721 households in Group A and Group B, and the renovation will be started first. Among them, Ms. Li is in Group A and Ms. Song is in Group B.
Some residents told reporters that the renovation project adheres to the principle of original demolition and original construction for reconstruction on the original site, and the implementation of the project needs to meet various conditions stipulated in relevant laws and policies. According to relevant regulations on the renovation of dilapidated buildings in Beijing, during the residents' opinion consultation stage, the approval of more than two-thirds of the total households participating in the renovation can be initiated before implementation. In actual work, through in-depth and meticulous mass work, the consent rate of Group A exceeded 99%, and the consent rate of Group B reached 100%. "With such a high consent rate, everyone expressed their urgent willingness to reform."
At the beginning of the Keyuan Community transformation, Haidian District set up a special team to provide on-site guidance, and set up an on-site headquarters for the Zhongguancun East District transformation and eight special working groups to take charge of organizing and mobilizing, soliciting opinions from the masses, and resolving conflicts and disputes. The reporter learned that when advancing specific work, the working group insisted on "public opinion first" and followed the system design of "four rounds of consultation" - reconstruction opinions, planning plans, implementation plans, and signing contracts to vacate houses. In each round, they had to go door-to-door to collect opinions, explain policies, and sometimes resolve differences.
Wherever the residents are, discussions will take place. According to Ms. Song's recollection, during the "four rounds of consultation", she was admitted to the hospital due to a fracture. She clearly remembered that on November 3, 2025, the staff rushed to the hospital specifically just to consult her opinion.
After "four rounds of consultation", countless meetings, and thousands of home-based communications, Group A and Group B finally achieved the "double hundred" goal of 100% contract signing and 100% vacancy. Behind these numbers is the "vote of confidence" cast by residents with their actual actions.
House design is divided into two parts
Negotiate governance to reach consensus
Ms. Li recalled that on the day she left Tongzilou, she asked her neighbor to take a photo for her.
On December 21, 2024, the winter solstice, the renovation project officially started. The Tongzi Tower was demolished, but the photo has been preserved by Ms. Li to this day. In the photo, she is standing in front of the old building where she has lived for most of her life, with the sun shining on her face. At that time, she was wearing her usual clothes and had nothing in her hands. "Keep it as a souvenir," she said.
When choosing a house, Ms. Li chose a "larger one-bedroom" apartment, which is expected to be delivered by the end of 2027. "I am very satisfied to be able to live in a new house in a familiar place." She told reporters that she was happiest when she could still live with her old neighbors. “It’s convenient to drop by to chat and look after each other.”
On December 3, 2025, Ms. Song also moved out of Tongzilou, and she also took photos of her former residence. Ms. Song's home has two single rooms in the Tongzi Building. According to the house selection rules, she chose a two-bedroom apartment with north-south transparency. In the planning, the new house was added with an independent bathroom, an independent kitchen, and an elevator up and downstairs. Ms. Song told reporters that according to accounting, the comprehensive renovation costs of new houses in Group B will be borne jointly by the central finance and residents based on the specific conditions of the houses.
"After paying the money and getting the house number, I feel at ease. The whole family is very satisfied and very happy." Ms. Song said that her new home is expected to be handed over by the end of 2028.
The reporter learned that among the demolition and original construction projects, the most difficult aspects are “house design” and “area compensation”, and this renovation of Keyuan Community is no exception. The original house types of residents in Group A and Group B are various. On this basis, they must not only meet the needs of the complete set, but also meet the area restrictions, lighting standards, and floor height and building height limits. This is a big challenge for the overall design of new houses.
How to deal with this challenge?
Some residents recalled to reporters that from the collection of intentions, the publicity and collection of planning plans, the publicity and collection of implementation plans to the final signing, all went through plan publicity, opinion collection, design modifications, and problem feedback. It’s not the community that has the final say, nor the designers, but everyone’s discussion. The final plan agreed upon was to build houses according to "no increase in the number of households" and appropriately increase the area to be built according to "moderate improvement".
This model of two-way interaction, co-construction and co-governance turns residents from "spectators and collaborators" into "participants and decision-makers", allowing demands to be expressed, differences to be resolved, problems to be solved, and solutions to pool everyone's ideas. Bi Wenqiang, vice president and secretary-general of the Beijing Property Law Research Association, told reporters that compared with the traditional "government-led, residents' cooperation" model, the most significant difference between this "everyone discusses and handles" model is that the former means "I want to change", while the latter means "I want to change."
From the residences with mature supporting facilities in the 1950s, to the old communities in the 21st century, to the happy homes of the future, the practice of "everyone discusses it" proves that the password of grassroots governance is in the practice of every knock on the door and every listening. The results are reflected in the good expectations of Ms. Li, Ms. Song and the old neighbors.
Comics/Gao Yue
Reporter's Notes
What should I do if the house is no longer suitable for habitation due to factors such as the age of its construction and the aging of the main structure, and may even be a safety hazard?
This is a common problem faced by many old residential buildings in our country. These residential buildings built in the early days have been damaged by wind and rain for decades, and the structures of some buildings have seriously aged, posing a serious threat to the personal safety of residents.
Keyuan Community is a microcosm of this: some Tongzi buildings do not have independent bathrooms and kitchens, and cooking must be done in the corridors. When meal time comes, the sound of cooking utensils and spatulas from each household fills the corridors; to go to the toilet, you have to go to the public toilet in the building, and you have to queue up early in the morning. Some tube buildings have been in disrepair for a long time, and their safety quality has been rated as dangerous buildings.
The living environment is no longer livable, and residents have urgent calls to improve their living conditions. However, because these old residences are located in the core area of the city, most residents are often unwilling to move. Under this circumstance, the urban renewal model of "replacing the old with the new" of old houses came into being. That is, on the basis of keeping the original location and the number of original households unchanged, the old houses are demolished and built new, and at the same time, independent kitchens and bathrooms, elevators, and fire protection and aging-friendly facilities are added.
"What is being renovated is the house, and what is being renovated is the people's hearts."
During the interview, the reporter was deeply touched by this sentence. A house is the residence of residents. Renovating houses and renovating facilities will change the living environment and hardware conditions, but the most precious gain throughout the process is the cohesion of people's hearts.
In December 2024, the Keyuan community renovation project started. Residents who witnessed this scene felt that “this is another big step towards a better life.” In the autumn of 2026, the three buildings started in advance have been topped out. Their expectation of moving into a new house is one step closer. In a photo of the topping-out ceremony provided by a resident, the four characters "Auspicious topping out" are particularly eye-catching on the building, and the residents' faces are full of smiles.
For the residents of Keyuan Community, since the original demolition and original construction was implemented, everyone has a smooth channel to express their demands, reasonable suggestions can be implemented, and the renovation is in line with the residents' wishes. Due to frequent discussions and mutual communication between neighbors, the relationship between neighbors is more harmonious, there are fewer conflicts, and the sense of belonging and happiness has been improved.
