"I climbed up to an overpass and looked at our new apartment buildings this morning. The residential compound looks nothing like the one before. I feel so excited and lucky. I never expected that our living quality could be changed like this," said Bao.

Shanghai's efforts of urban renewal and improving people's living quality have gathered pace in recent years. The city announced it aims to complete its plan to renovate old residential buildings, especially those without independent bathrooms and kitchens, by 2025. The project covers 2.8 million sq m of residential property.

Since last year, nine renovation projects have gotten underway in the city's Yangpu, Huangpu, Jing'an, Xuhui and Hongkou districts, benefiting 10,000 households.

In Jing'an, Pengpu No 1 Village is the district's last large-scale residential renovation project, an endeavor that has been ongoing since 2005.

In the early years, the district added new floors to existing buildings, but there were limits to this approach as the living environment remained poor, said Wang Yanfeng, deputy director of the Jing'an District Housing Administration.

"So later we altered the method to tearing down the old buildings and reconstructing new ones at the original sites. In 2007, Pengpu No 3 Village became a pilot project where the buildings were torn down and new ones were built. Thousands of households benefited, and they moved in two years ago," said Wang.

"The smooth process of the project in Pengpu No 1 Village is a landmark of Shanghai's urban renewal process. This project involves the largest number of households and the most complexity in terms of room sizes and room types," he said.

Ren Wei, secretary of the Party working committee of Pengpu New Village subdistrict, said that relevant government departments from more than 50 cities in the country have visited to learn from their practice. Some government visitors have even been from overseas, including those from Japan and Tunisia, he said.