In the Shanquan housing estate in Shatoujiao Subdistrict, the staircases of the buildings are now bright and neat. Seniors are often seen playing table tennis, while children merrily chase one another outdoors.

Seniors playing table tennis in Shanquan housing estate.

Only two years ago, things were quite different. The lamps in the staircases did not work, so residents fumbled their way up at night; the emergency passages were blocked, and residents often worried about what would happen in case of emergencies; downstairs, garbage piled up from time to time.

First built in 1985, the housing estate consists of 17 buildings and is home to 1,500 residents. Back then, there was no property management, and the public facilities were not regularly maintained.

Luo Xinqiang, a resident who had moved out and has now moved back, said people used to park their cars haphazardly and the housing estate felt "hopeless."

An outdoor area in the housing estate.

With support from Shatoujiao Community, Party members of the housing estate formed a property owners' committee. They visited all 323 households and listened to their complaints and suggestions.

After careful budgeting, the committee decided to charge households a one-yuan-per-square-meter management fee each month from the households to raise funds for facility maintenance. In contrast, most high-rise estates with elevators charge between 2 and 4 yuan per square meter per month, while non-high-rise estates charge about 1.3 yuan.

Cars are parked orderly in the housing estate.

The management team of the estate is made up of retirees and other helpful property owners, who post the accounts of charges and spending each month on a bulletin board. They also offer timely services to fix pipelines and other facilities.

The management also identified 33 key issues to tackle, including random parking and the blocking of emergency passages.

With government subsidies, the housing estate added more surveillance cameras, revamped the paths, and organized festival events such as evening galas and zongzi-making activities during the Dragon Boat Festival.

The outer walls of the buildings have been repainted.

Building on the successful transformation of the Shanquan housing estate, Shatoujiao Subdistrict plans to encourage three more unmanaged estates under its jurisdiction to form management teams and trial self-governance this year.