Child-friendly cities — better China, better world

As a mother, I am very glad to see that the concept of "Child-Friendly Cities" has been formally written into China's 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025). The 14th Five-Year Plan clearly put forward "optimizing the environment for children's development, and earnestly guaranteeing children's right to survival, development, protection and participation." Moreover, in my real life with my daughter, I am also deeply gratified that the concept of child-friendly cities has quietly taken root in Chinese society and came true gradually.

These five photos were taken when I took my four-year old daughter to Shijiazhuang Art Museum to visit a wonderful painting exhibition this year. When my daughter saw the paintings which she was interested in, she copied them with her paper and colorful crayons. As an important cultural public infrastructure, the art museum is not only free open to children, but also provides various conveniences for children. The concept of child-friendly cities is reflected in every detail, whether the hardware of infrastructure or the software of public service. For example, there is a special storage place for children's water bottles in the art museum, which not only considers the overall order of the art museum, but also fully considers the children's need of drinking water. Although this is only a very small detail, but it embodies the concept of child-friendly cities.

"Child-Friendly Cities Initiative" was launched in 1996 by the UNICEF and the UN-Habitat, which aims to translate the Convention on the Rights of the Child into action and create cities and communities that fully respond to the needs of children. A Child-Friendly City is a city, town or community in which the voices, needs, priorities and rights of children are an integral part of public policies, programmes and decisions，and in which children have a good start in life and grow up healthy and cared for, have access to quality social services, experience quality, inclusive and participatory education and skills development, live in a safe secure and clean environment with access to green spaces, and have a fair chance in life regardless of their ethnic origin, religion, income, gender or ability and so on. "Child-Friendly Cities Initiative" has been widely responded and supported by more than 3,000 cities all over the world.

Children are not only the hope of every family, but also the future masters of our country. Every child needs high-quality infrastructure and public services to help them grow up and develop to their full potential so as to contribute to our society when they grow up. China has the second largest population of children in the world, second only to India. There are still many left-behind children in the rural areas in China, who need more child-friendly communities and more child-friendly infrastructure and public services such as libraries, museums and gymnasiums and so on. I believe that with the strong policy support of China's 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) and the continuous efforts of all sectors of our society, the child-friendly cities, towns or communities will blossom and bear fruit in China soon. I also believe that China will eventually build child-friendly cities, towns or communities with Chinese characteristics, and as an influential and responsible big country, China will contribute Chinese wisdom to the international society. Better children, better future. Better China, better world.

My name is Yang Yuan. I have been a lawyer since 2007. I graduated from China University of Political Science and Law, and got my bachelor's degree in law and master's degree in law. Now while being a lawyer, at the same time I study in Graduate School of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, aiming to get my doctor's degree in law.

As a mother, I have a four-year old daughter. Because of my daughter, I pay special attention to children related events. This is also the reason I write this article about that the concept of "Child-Friendly Cities", which is originally proposed by the UNICEF on the Convention on the Rights of the Child, has been formally written into China's 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025).

The opinions expressed here are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of China Daily and China Daily website.