On April 20th, Tongji University's "Introduction to the People's City" class opened, and Fang Shouen, the party secretary of Tongji University, gave the introduction to this course. Professor Zhu Dajian, director of the Institute of Sustainable Development and Management of Tongji University, gave the first lesson.

For the first class, held on the Siping Road Campus of Tongji University, the lecture hall was full. Fang Shouen's lectures are developed from three aspects: the theoretical origin of the people's city, the essential attributes of the people's city, and the value orientation of the people's city.

Professor Zhu Dajian’s lecture was titled "The People's City and Shanghai Development from the Three Peoples", expounding the "why" and "what" of People's City from the three aspects of "for people", "of people" and "by people". He pointed out that "for people" means that our city should shift from focusing mainly on "economy" as its functional goal in the past, to focusing on "people's city" as its pursuit goal; "of people" means that the city, having mainly satisfied the past material needs, shoud shift to satisfying people’s needs for a better life; “by people” means that the city should shift from being mainly government management and governance in the past to a people’s city construction and governance model with extensive public participation.