Research On Municipal Construction Of Qingdao (1898-1949)

In recent years, urban historical research on Qingdao has yielded fruitful results, which expands the depth and the width of research, but more achievements have concentrated on urban planning, landscape, architectural features, urban modernization and so on. At the same time they lack deep research and systematic expression. Since its establishment in 1891, Qingdao has gone through several stages of the rule of Germany, Japanese and the Northern Government, the Nationalist government. The existing research of municipal construction on Qingdao concentrates on the German occupation and the Japanese occupation, but lacks of in-depth study on the Northern Government and the Nationalist government and ignores the in-depth and overall study, such as on organizational systems and operating mechanism of municipal institutions, etc. Therefore, the current research of municipal construction on Qingdao is not enough and comprehensive.Based on the municipal construction of Qingdao from 1898 to 1949,I try to make up for the lack of historical research on Qingdao, and reveal the laws of municipal construction and municipal administration, and provide some reference for current urban modernization ,scientific and democratic management in modern city.The urban modernization in Qingdao has undergone three phases: the traditional town, commercial harbor city, multi-central city. In 1891, the Qing Dynasty appointed Zhang Gao-Yuan to build harbor, fort, military facilities and civilian facilities. After several years of construction, Qingdao's business and trade have been developed and Qingdao developed into a traditional small town. After 1898, Germany began to lease Qingdao, and formulated "Qingdao Urban Planning" and "Qingdao Urban Expansion Planning" in accordance with the advanced urban theory, and engaged in the construction of infrastructure facilities and public facilities, including building Qingdao Harbor, Jiaoji Railway, building irregular shape and divergence-shaped roads in accordance with the topographical features, building water pipeline and sewers, etc. After more than ten years of construction, Qingdao changed from the traditional town to a commercial harbor city. After 1914, Japan invaded and occupied Qingdao, and began to be engaged in urban construction according to the original urban planning. Because Japanese focused on economic plunder, they relied on the local resources and cheap labor to set up factories and dump large quantities of Japanese products, and stimulated the economy to prosperity. When Shen Hong-Lie served as mayor of Qingdao in the 20th century 30s, he attached to the city's comprehensive development, including developing school education and social education, developing national industry, developing rural and urban construction. Therefore under the government's encouragement and support, Qingdao had developed rapidly and gradually developed into an all-round development of the multi-city.In Qingdao municipal organization system and operating mechanism was different at different times. During the time of German-controlled, according to the separation of powers idea German constructed urban government, established ministry of civil affairs, port authority and so on that each department have a clear division of labor and clear responsibilities. Counselor was a consulting department. German formulated a series of laws and regulations in order to manage urban within the framework of the law. Compared to other cities in the feudal, this management approach was progressive. During the period of the first invasion of Japanese, Japanese ruled Qingdao depending on military. Qingdao Garrison Command was the highest military and political leaders and had the executive power, military power and judicial power. Although the Japanese established Civil Affairs, Japanese managed urban on the basis of military pressure and severe penalties. During the period of the second invasion of Japanese, Japanese controlled Qingdao depending on Chinese, but Japanese held the actual authority. Besides Mayor and Conference, Japanese established Consultant advisor that was controlled by Japanese. Qingdao was under the supervision of Japanese. When Qingdao was in the reign of the Northern Government, though the institutions were overstaffed and administrative efficiency was very low, the government had a sense of administrative regulations and formulated a large number of laws such as rewards and penalties, clearing specific responsibilities and the right of department and so on that promoted the development of the municipal management system. So the system construction had a positive meaning. During the rule of the Nationalist Government, government was established on the basis of "City Organization Act" and divided into departments according to functions. Besides four primary management systems, Qingdao established creatively the agency of rural areas. On the one hand Qingdao government carried out the national government's order, on the other hand it had the right to a certain degree of self-management that it could formulate the laws of city in the case of non-contradiction with the national government's regulations. During Shen Hong-Lie was the mayor of Qingdao, urban governance was characterized by appointment of experts, including hiring professional and technical personnel in the technology sector, sending experts to learn the advanced experience of management, setting up special municipal research institutes and groups in order to improve administrative efficiency.In modern Qingdao was built on the basis of urban planning. Major urban planning was the following points: in 1900, "Qingdao Urban Planning", 1910, "Qingdao Expansion Planning", 1935, "Qingdao Urban Planning of Implementing", 1939, " Qingdao Special Urban Planning" and "Qingdao Master Planning". Theses urban plans had a profound impact on the layout of urban space, city size, architectural features, landscape and cultural. "Qingdao Urban Planning" and "Qingdao Expansion Planning" made Qingdao form a "North-South-long" spatial structure. "Qingdao Urban Planning of Implementing" focused on the overall development of Qingdao and built five major functional divisions that were composed of administrative districts, harbor areas, residence, commercial area and industrial regions. "Qingdao Special urban planning" and "Qingdao Master Planning " planed to establish so-called "Big Qingdao "in order to make Qingdao be Japanese strategic base and the looting of goods harbor. As to the impact of these urban plans, "Qingdao Urban Planning "and" Qingdao Expansion Planning" had a profound and positive impact on Qingdao. "Qingdao Special Urban Planning" and "Qingdao Master Planning" had a negative impact because the plans were unrealistic and aggressive.Qingdao built infrastructure with modern methods, including building Qingdao Harbor with the most advanced technology, connecting Jiaoji rail and Qingdao Harbor that promoted the economic development, building roads in irregular shape and divergent shaped that emphasized on both the practical function and landscape function, laying two kinds of water pipeline that rain pipes and sewage pipes were mixed or separated and separated pipes were relatively more.Qingdao developed urban public facilities construction with modern methods, including providing people with adequate water, providing with adequate industrial electricity and life electricity, providing with fast and convenient means of transportation, insisting on public health and epidemic prevention that stressed early prevention and later control, building urban green space that was composed of forest, trees, Green Triangle, park and so on in order to provide people with a variety of entertainment and cultural life and guide people have a healthy life. Along with urban development and population increasing, Qingdao had three large-scale housing constructions. In the thirties, government built houses for the poor in order to improve the living condition of civilians.In Qingdao, cultural and entertainment facilities were complete because there were beach, theater, cinema, dance hall, etc. With the development of school education and social education, people's cultural quality had been improved. Finally, the paper summarizes three characteristics of municipal construction: First, the system construction is consistent and continuous, and becomes more scientific, exhaustive, and comprehensive. Second, financial capital is so sufficient that makes Qingdao have enough money to construct. At last, the municipal constructions are executed according to engineering construction system in details, uniform architectural standards and more normalized governance mechanism and so on.