Beijing plans to renovate nearly 100 "villages within cities" -- former suburban areas that have been swallowed up by urban sprawl -- by the end of the year. It is the most intense effort yet to tackle the city's chronic enclaves of poverty.

The slum-like villages, enclosed by urban infrastructure such as skyscrapers and modern roads, are sometimes referred to as forgotten corners.

Chen Wenzhan, director of the Beijing Municipal Administration Commission, said improvements to the first 25 urban villages will start in the next few weeks.

"A total of 97 urban villages are expected to be renovated this year, including 28 near the sports venues of the 2008 Olympic Games and 69 enclosed in the eight urban districts," said Chen, talking on the sidelines of the ongoing annual full session of the National People's Congress.

Song Yu, a senior official with the Beijing Municipal Commission of Development and Reform, said the city government plans to plunge 1.5 billion yuan (US$181.2 million) this year into the massive renovation.

District governments will also invest a large amount of money in the project, Song added.

Beijing now has 232 such urban villages, most of which are located around prosperous commercial centers, along railway lines or near large factories.

Chen said the city plans to revamp 171 of them before the Olympics and the rest by 2010.

Roads in the villages do not meet the basic transportation and fire control standards, while utility connections are in disarray. Sewers frequently back up and there is rubbish everywhere.

Grandpa Yan is one of the hundreds of thousands of residents of such villages.

He has spent 70 years in Laogucheng Village in Shijingshan District where, he said, the widest alley is just 4 meters across and the narrowest less than 1 meter. "People have to turn sideways when they pass each other," the Beijing Times quoted Yan as saying.

He said that in the front part of the village, where more than 5,600 people live, there are only six old-style public toilets. Without toilet facilities in their homes, residents have to queue in long lines in front of the shabby public toilets every morning, carrying the chamber pots commonly used during the night.

As Beijing is busy preparing to host the 2008 Olympic Games, the renovation of urban villages has been high on the government's work agenda since June last year.

A dozen villages were renovated by the end of 2004, the Beijing Daily reported.

(China Daily March 9, 2005)