One of the main principles of socialist urban planning is that every person is entitled to housing. Crushed under the weight of an immense population, however, Beijing has been hard pressed to live up to this ideal. A severe housing shortage exists in Beijing. The main building phases of both residential and industrial buildings in Beijing took place between 1953 and 1957, in the early 1960's, and from 1979 on to the present. The housing produced in these periods, however, has proven to be insufficient.
Often, housing is provided by an individual's employer and comes as part of the job. There are usually tremendous waiting lists even for employer-provided housing, however, and employees may wait years before this "benefit" of their employment comes to fruition. (Recent in-migration, which further aggravates the housing shortage, has been curbed somewhat by a new requirement that an individual must prove that he or she has housing in the city before he or she can attain work. This condition is, of course, virtually impossible.)
The government, however, remains the primary provider of shelter. Each individual has his or her name placed on a list, and is assigned housing in turn. The government simply has not been able to keep pace with the tremendous demand, and the wait for housing can often last for years. Meanwhile, people are crammed into whatever space is available, however marginal it might be.
The quality of Beijing's housing is as poor as the quantity. Much of the housing dates from before 1949, and much of that dates back to the 1930's. With an incredibly dense population, there is not much space to go around, and so entire families may live in a dwelling not much bigger than the average double bed. A great number of families live in communal housing, with six or seven families sharing what in the United States would be considered a modest-sized house.
It seems that in attempting to uphold an ideal, a principle, China has sacrificed the well-being of its people. Times have changed. In the past, China was even more agricultural and rural than it is now. Peasants lived in small shacks built by their own hands, just as most who now live in the countryside do. However, the descendants of those peasants have now migrated into the cities. They cannot build high-rise public housing with their own hands--they are totally dependent on the government to provide for their housing needs. The Chinese government does not seem to have fully recognized this fact, or else has recognized it but doesn't care.
Other entities have attempted to pick up the slack, but the results of their endeavors may be just as disastrous. As private enterprise grows in China, the housing market is moving from a "welfare benefit" market in which every person is guaranteed housing and all housing is provided by the government, to a commercial market based on supply and demand. Based on the extraordinary demand for housing in China, one can only imagine the horrendous prices that result as Beijing moves toward an increasingly commercial housing market. (CGC)