Looking out from shabby, crowded homes, views of the Oriental Pearl TV Tower and flashing neon lights across the Huangpu River — that was the everyday reality for many people living in downtown Shanghai decades ago.

Since the 1950s, the city government has launched rounds of campaigns to improve living conditions for its residents, from replacing shantytowns with modern apartment buildings, to the ambitious move in the early 1990s to renovate 3.65 million square meters of low-quality housing. The emergence of a private housing market helped with providing the foundations for high-rise apartment buildings to be erected across the city.

Here are 18 photos showing the process of urban renewal in Shanghai.

A bungalow with a rooftop made of straw in Fangua Long, a noted slum, 1950s.

A family takes a walk in Caoyang New Village, a housing development built for workers, August 1952. Lu Shunxing/Jiefang Daily

Workers move into a new house in Jiading District, Oct. 1, 1959. Guo Renyi/Jiefang Daily

Boys look at boats moored in an inner harbor ahead of a typhoon, August 1962. People lived on boats in Shanghai through much of the 20th century. Jia Zhenfu/Jiefang Daily

Members of staff at a nursery take children home after a flood that was caused by heavy rain in Caoyang New Village, Sept. 6, 1962. Bi Pinfu/Jiefang Daily

The rebuilt Fangua Long Workers’ New Village, 1970s.

A family photo of residents living in the rebuilt Fangua Long, 1970s.