China's capital Beijing has invested heavily in renovating old urban streets and build more apartments for low-income families over the past five years, according to the municipal statistic bureau.
Since 1998, the city has launched 40 low-income family housing projects and has invested 24.65 billion yuan (US$2.96 billion) to build 13.729 million square meters of apartments.
So far, a total of 6.13 million square meters of housing has been completed and almost 70,000 low-income families have moved into new homes, the bureau says in an annual report.
In the meantime, the local government has paid great attention to protecting cultural heritage in its efforts to upgrade the old urban streets, the bureau says.
(Xinhua News Agency February 6, 2003)
