People from the Xinjian residential quarters of Huangpu District in east China's industrial and business metropolis of Shanghai has begun living in a more healthy way of life, thanks to the city's ongoing healthy city development program.

Living in old lanes, most of Xinjian residents are low-income earners and senior citizens, with some 90 percent of them having to share bath rooms and kitchens with other families.

Under the healthy city development program, residents aged over 60 at Xinjian have their health-care archives established, and women in dire need there have been given access to free gynecological check-ups. Chefs from restaurants have been invited to the neighborhood community to teach residents how to cook healthy, nutritious food. Meanwhile, gym facilities are installed in the community.

Xinjian is a typical example in Shanghai, which had kicked off the three-year healthy city program in 2003.

A recent survey found that about 70 percent of the respondents considered both urban environment and citizens' health condition have improved remarkably in Shanghai.

Over the recent past three years, 169 contaminated waterways inthe city proper have been treated and garbage moved out in obturated vehicles. Its per-capita green pads are expected to reach 11 sq m by the end of this year.

Building up healthy cities represents a global strategy the World Health Organization initiated in the 1980s against the threat of excessive urbanization threat to human health.

Shanghai is the first metropolis to implement a healthy city program in China.

(Xinhua News Agency December 31, 2005)