October 31 is World Cities Day. The 2023 World Cities Day China Main Event in Shanghai, themed "Building People's Cities Together, Sharing a Better Life," and the Global Conference on Sustainable Urban Development, opened at the Shanghai World Expo Exhibition Hall. Jiang Wanrong, Vice Minister of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, and Chen Yujian, Vice Mayor of Shanghai, attended and delivered speeches. Zong Ming, Deputy Director of the Standing Committee of the Shanghai Municipal People's Congress, and Xiao Guiyu, Vice Chairman of the Shanghai Municipal Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, released the Chinese version of the "Shanghai Manual" and the "Shanghai Index Comprehensive Indicator Usage Guide." Maimunah Mohd Sharif, Executive Director of UN-Habitat, delivered a video speech. Wang Weiren, Deputy Secretary-General of the Shanghai Municipal People's Government, presided over the opening ceremony. In his speech, Jiang Wanrong stated that five years ago, during President Xi Jinping's inspection of Shanghai, he proposed the important concept of a people's city, clarifying the values and methodology for urban development, and pointing the way for creating new situations in the construction of people's cities and promoting high-quality urban development. Today, representatives from different countries and cities are discussing the experiences and practices of sustainable urban development under this year's theme, working towards the goal of "building inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable cities and human settlements." The Chinese government places great emphasis on sustainable urban development, continuously and deeply implementing the people-centered development philosophy, advancing new urbanization with people at its core, firmly grasping the key point of ensuring the housing needs of the people, building the world's largest housing security system, and striving to achieve the goal of ensuring housing for all. Efforts are being made to solidify urban renewal actions, vigorously promote the renovation of old urban residential areas, build complete communities, accelerate urban infrastructure construction, and create high-quality living spaces for the people. Urban functions are continuously improving, carrying capacity is steadily increasing, and living environments are significantly enhancing. Building beautiful and livable cities is a common aspiration of countries around the world. China is willing to continue in-depth cooperation and exchanges with other countries in the field of housing and urban-rural development, discuss practical experiences and innovative measures for promoting sustainable urban development, and contribute to the implementation of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda and the New Urban Agenda, jointly building a better urban home. In his speech, Chen Yujian mentioned that over the past five years, Shanghai has been committed to building a livable, resilient, and smart city, advancing innovative practices that make the city better for life, and striving to write a new chapter in the construction of people's cities. High-quality development has been steadily advancing, with continuous progress in the "two old and one village" renovation, creating vibrant urban spaces along the "one river and one river," and promoting the construction of a millennium city. High-quality life has been continuously improving, achieving the goal of housing for all, constructing a multi-level rental housing security system with beds, rooms, and apartments, accelerating the construction of "homes for urban builders and managers in the new era," creating a 15-minute community life circle, building a people-oriented diverse community culture, and constructing new smart communities integrating life, commerce, culture, and leisure. Efficient governance has been continuously enhanced, with efforts to promote the digital transformation of urban governance and improve the level of refined urban management. Shanghai actively shares, discusses, and practices sustainable people's city construction with global cities, continuously promoting the implementation of the UN 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda and the Global Development Initiative. This year's World Cities Day China Main Event was held in Weihai and Shanghai, with the Shanghai event co-hosted by the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, UN-Habitat, and the Shanghai Municipal People's Government, including the opening ceremony, a series of forums, exhibitions, and themed inspections. The Global Conference on Sustainable Urban Development was held simultaneously. Representatives from domestic and foreign governments, mayors and city representatives, experts and scholars, business leaders, and representatives from relevant international organizations attended the opening ceremony, with around 800 participants attending related side events. The second Global Sustainable Development City Award (Shanghai Award) was presented for the first time outside China at the global main venue of World Cities Day in Alexandria, Egypt. The Shanghai Award, established by UN-Habitat with the support of the Chinese government, is a global award that specifically commends cities that have made outstanding achievements in sustainable development. It aims to promote the localization of the New Urban Agenda globally by recognizing cities' efforts to implement the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, particularly Sustainable Development Goal 11 (sustainable cities and communities). The first Shanghai Award was presented in Shanghai in 2021. Since its establishment, World Cities Day has witnessed the sustainable development of global cities and promoted global city managers to practice and explore according to the requirements of sustainable development goals. Through this platform, China and other countries have jointly pushed global urban sustainable development into a new stage. World Cities Day originated from the 2010 Shanghai World Expo. As the host of the Global Conference on Sustainable Urban Development, Shanghai will continue to leverage its unique geographical advantages, economic strength, and cultural charm to explore the best paths for urban development together with global cities.

"People's City Built by the People, People's City for the People," this year marks the fifth anniversary of the concept of the "People's City." This concept not only embodies the fundamental attributes of Shanghai as a city but also highlights the principal position of the people. Over the past five years, it has guided a practical path through various practices: maximizing the enthusiasm, initiative, and creativity of the people to create social governance platforms for "co-construction," "co-governance," and "shared benefits." At the opening ceremony, four representatives from the streets, enterprises, and youth featured in the "Shanghai Manual" cases engaged in in-depth exchanges and discussions on the construction and practice of the "People's City" during the roundtable dialogue session, focusing on keywords such as "co-construction," "co-governance," and "shared benefits." Kunming, the capital city of Yunnan Province in China, is an important urban wetland. In recent years, Kunming's Cuihu Park has continuously practiced ecological restoration and launched a partnership program for urban biodiversity, leveraging public power in an innovative form. This case of public participation in co-construction has been included in this year's "Shanghai Manual." During the dialogue session, Dr. Li Weiwei, a senior engineer from the Kunming Institute of Zoology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, shared Kunming's "Urban Partner Program." She stated that Yunnan is one of the regions with the richest biodiversity in the world, contributing more than half of the global enabling factors. This biodiversity is integrated into the city but is often difficult to discover and perceive. Therefore, in youth initiatives, taking Kunming's Cuihu Park as a model, many young volunteers have been gathered to discover the biodiversity around them through technological means, achieving the empowerment of "Park+." Additionally, technological means are used to guide the public, achieving a dynamic balance between the city and its biodiversity while experiencing it.

Cities need partners and partnership enterprises. The French ATD Group, which has been deeply rooted in Shanghai for years, has long been committed to promoting the sustainable development of communities and business locations, aiming to achieve carbon reduction and true comprehensive building optimization. Olivier Itey, Chief Innovation Officer of the French ATD Group and Vice President of Akira, stated that Shanghai has gathered many innovators, and its level of digital development is at the global forefront. How to provide sustainable solutions for buildings, the carriers that constitute cities, through digitalization is one of the cores of current urban sustainable development. However, the digital level of the construction industry is not high at present. Therefore, Olivier Itey called for better operation of buildings in cities through people-centric approaches, examining management processes, and empowering technology, to achieve improved energy efficiency and sustainable development.

As the basic unit of urban operation, community co-governance can enhance citizens' sense of gain, happiness, and security, which is also the foundation of urban governance. Yangpu District's Changbai Xincun Subdistrict, which is also featured in this year's "Shanghai Manual" case studies, has transformed from a former worker's new village into a representative youth-oriented community. Xie Jing, Deputy Director of the Changbai Xincun Subdistrict Office in Yangpu District, Shanghai, shared during a roundtable discussion that through showcasing the architectural style, reshaping functions, and revaluing heritage, they have integrated and passed on the "old memories" with "new lives" in the wave of urban renewal. In attracting young people to actively participate in community services, understanding the needs of the youth demographic is key for Changbai Xincun Subdistrict to shift from unidirectional service to young people to a mutual engagement between the community and young people. While retaining young residents, the community also taps into their professional and innovative capabilities to maintain their involvement in co-governance.

Of course, the beauty of a city requires not only meeting the needs of ordinary citizens but also fully considering those with special needs. The "Ji Deaf Hearts" public welfare team from Tongji University created a sign language digital human to help the hearing-impaired better receive information. This project also won the gold award for creative public welfare teams in the Shanghai Social Welfare Organization Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition. Team leader Cheng Sirui introduced that based on an intelligent translation system, through cloud-deployed natural algorithms, external voice and text can be converted into sign language digital humans in real-time, helping the hearing-impaired better receive external information. Currently, this product has been widely applied in various scenarios, both domestically and internationally, online and offline, many of which were previously inaccessible to the hearing-impaired. In the future, the team hopes to build an information barrier-free communication platform for global hearing-impaired individuals, helping this group access barrier-free public infrastructure services, showcasing the warmth and inclusiveness of the city.

The official release of the public welfare brand for the World Cities Day large-scale theme public welfare event, which encourages full public participation and interaction! All the large-scale public welfare event brands released on-site are open to the public, promoting full public participation and interaction. Specific events include: the 6th Shanghai Social Organization Public Welfare Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition, the "Vibrant Neighborhood Youth City" Huangpu District Youth Development-Oriented Urban Micro-Renovation Competition, the 10th National College Students' Urban Governance Case Challenge Competition, the 7th "Children's Vision of the Future City" for the construction of child-friendly cities in Shanghai, and the People's City • Beautiful Neighborhood Route Exhibition. "The influence of the competition is enormous," said Xiang Dan, head of the public welfare team + Youth Hub entrepreneurial team and a participant in the Shanghai Social Organization Public Welfare Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition. After six years of accumulation, the influence of this public welfare innovation and entrepreneurship competition has been continuously expanding and improving. This year, it attracted teams to participate, with topics ranging from elderly care, autism children, community governance, artificial intelligence, and more. Focusing on community autonomy, Youth Hub, with its initial members, created micro-spaces and initiated a series of community activities to engage thousands in shared governance, releasing the passion and vitality of young people and residents of all ages in community governance. Although only established a few months ago, Liu Jing's team won the championship of this year's Shanghai Social Organization Public Welfare Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition with their project of building a "low-cost, low-threshold" micro-investment platform for young people at their doorstep. Currently, the platform has provided services for nearly young people in multiple street projects. Cheng Sirui, head of another participating team, the Integration Team, believes that the Shanghai Social Organization Public Welfare Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition aligns very well with the theme of "Cities, Making Life Better." The goal of the Integration Team is to ensure that everyone can equally enjoy the beauty of this world, which is also the original intention behind their creation of a sign language digital human through a sign language large model to help the hearing-impaired better receive information. Starting from campus entrepreneurship, this young team is gradually expanding their services to society and the global stage with the influence of the competition. The team from the School of International and Public Affairs at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, composed of undergraduate students, won the championship of the National College Students' Urban Governance Case Challenge Competition with their "Property Management in Villages" case. The team representative proposed that introducing property management into rural areas aims to improve the overall environment. Since villages do not have a clear boundary, introducing property management will also increase costs and require guidance in publicity. Shanghai has many new types of communities, such as rental housing communities and international communities, whose governance solutions differ from traditional neighborhood committees and property management committees. Therefore, it is necessary to extend and enhance new models from traditional governance directions, which will be a gradual exploration process. As a participant in the People's City Beautiful Neighborhood Route Exhibition brand event, Cao Jiajie from Hongkou District expressed that the Lu Xun Trail integrates science with culture, allowing visitors to scan QR codes to access Lu Xun's collection of books, and regularly screen classic adapted films using projectors and high-definition digital TVs. This digital interactive mode allows the public to no longer be mere spectators but active participants, immersing themselves in the unique historical and cultural heritage of the locality, appreciating the architectural style of Shanghai, and feeling the innovative vitality of technology-driven urban renewal. The Meiyuan Beautiful Neighborhood event designed a total of check-in points, fully integrating dining, drinking, touring, entertainment, and learning. Wang Kai, the event planning responsible person, proposed that the team's work mode focuses on overall planning and coordination, considering the city's facade, street surface, including greenery, lighting, and color, as a unified whole. The construction of this beautiful neighborhood also inspired them. It is not only necessary to closely combine the actual needs of residents, explore the advantages and endowments of their own jurisdiction, and provide more spaces and points for residents to stop and appreciate, but also to bring small joys and big surprises to residents through micro-renovation and precise updates, focusing on revitalizing small and micro spaces that are of low quality and long-term underutilization, creating better new urban life scenarios, and thereby releasing more consumption, sports, and leisure spaces.