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a forum about the child friendly city" was held at the shenzhen library on tuesday, a day before international children's day. it was attended by children and experts in urban planning, architecture and community service, the shenzhen economic daily reported yesterday.
city mayor xu qin, several government officials and an official from the united nations international children's emergency fund (unicef) left their handprints on a wall during the event to show their commitment to building shenzhen into a child friendly city.
xu gave teaching robots as holiday gifts to children and showed them how to operate the robots. he said children represent the future of china and he hopes they can experience the joy of studying science.
vice mayor wu yihuan said there are 1.38 million children living in shenzhen, making up 12.85 percent of the overall permanent population. wu said building a child friendly city was part of the city government’s 13th five-year plan, and more resources will be deployed to promote children's welfare.
a child friendly city is the embodiment of the convention on the rights of the child at the local level, which in practice means that children's rights are reflected in policies, laws, programs and budgets. in a child friendly city, children's voices and opinions are taken into consideration and influence decision-making processes, according to the unicef's website.
currently, there are 400 cities worldwide, including london, munich, buenos aries, seattle and copenhagen, certificated by the united nations as child friendly cities.
"we want our voices to be heard in homes, schools and in society like grown-ups," said jiang shuaishuai, a middle school student in shenzhen. she said parents often decide things for kids when they have different opinions, and children don't have a say when things that concern children's welfare are decided.
jiang said children don't want adults to tell them what the world is like, but they want to observe and explore it by themselves.
"if grown-ups could observe the world from a child's view, or if children could stand on the shoulders of our elder generation and see the world from an adult's view, we will have less conflict and more joy in our families and our city will become friendly to kids," she said.
another middle school student, wang haotian, said children should also shoulder their own responsibilities to build shenzhen into an international and eco-friendly city. guan ying, a grade 3 student, said he hopes schools will organize more social activities or events for students to do practical work.
tan quan, from the shenzhen municipal urban planning, land and resources commission, said that adults may care if a city has high-rise buildings and job opportunities, but children are more concerned about whether their communities and schools are "interesting" enough. he said children need a city with love, meaning the city's public resources should be used to promote children's welfare.
ye qing, chairman of shenzhen institute of building research co. ltd., said building a low-carbon and eco-friendly city is an important part of a child friendly city, but the city's standards for air and water quality were set to meet adults’ needs.