Harbin Housing Push Puts 'Shantytowns' on Edge

Dilapidated brick structures cobbled together with rusty metal and plastic sheets. Piles of uncovered garbage. Sewage in the streets.

Welcome to Baijiabao, on the peripherals of the northern city of Harbin. It's a typical Chinese shantytown, and the target of a municipal government campaign to clear run-down neighborhoods.

More than 2,000 Baijiabao households have embraced the project's offer for new apartments, free of charge, and will give up shacks for flats in six, high-rise buildings scheduled to be built on site. A national science research park under Harbin University of Science and Technology will also be built in Baijiabao by 2014.