Liuyun Xiaoqu pioneered the transformation of gated, residential-only housing stock into mixed-use, public access and car-free urban developments all while retaining the walk-up 8-or-9-storey housing stock and intricate local walkway connections. (During 2020, many of these walk-up housing buildings have had lifts installed at a cost of around 600,000 yuan per lift.) This seems to be far preferable to the approach common in other cities in which 1960s-1990s era 'danwei' or work unit housing is razed to make way for high-income highrises often with gated perimeters, sterile streetscapes and excessive off-street car parking provision.
In the two decades since Liuyun Xiaoqu first implemented this innovation, over the strident objections of city planning officials outraged by the contravention of single-use zoning stipulations, the approach has spread to all the adjoining districts. A key challenge for the ground level shops and services is how to allow pedestrian access from the main streets. The street network is now quite porous, and there are also many ways in via gaps between buildings such as this one nestled next to a well-known 24-hour bookshop.