(Yicai Global) Sept. 13 -- Shanghai proposed creating a ’15-minute community life circle’ as part of the city’s 2017-2035 development blueprint, enabling residents to work, study, access transport and medical care within 15 minutes of their homes. A thousand-year-old village in the city has become a model example of that.

Happy Community is located in the village of Zhangyan in Chonggu town, which is part of Shanghai’s westernmost district of Qingpu. At the center, residents can read and watch movies, get diagnoses and treatments online, and seek legal advice, as well as join in other leisure and entertainment activities.

Zhangyan was built in 1069 during the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127). It is a typical ancient village in the south of the Yangtze River, the birthplace of ancient Shanghai culture and represents the local Fuquanshan culture.

Zhangyan’s Happy Community, designed and built by a team at Tongji University.

A volunteer teaches residents how to perform magic tricks.

A volunteer helps an elderly resident to use a computer.

A resident receives legal advice.

Quanxiang Community, also in Chonggu, has set up a digital clinic, where people can have their blood pressure checked and have health consultations.

A volunteer teaches a resident traditional weaving techniques at Quanxiang Community.

Editor: Peter Thomas