BEIJING, April 3 (Xinhua) -- On a recent weekday in Shanghai, a small boy walked through a subway gate without ducking or squeezing. The turnstile, redesigned as a rounded arch at a child's height, allowed him to pass through upright smoothly.

"It's a really thoughtful touch, very convenient," said his parents.

The small adjustment reflects a broader shift across China toward reimagining facilities, services and policies from a child's height.

After years of building more playgrounds and family amenities, China is now expanding the scope and upgrading the quality of its "child-friendly development," highlighting a "one-meter perspective" principle, roughly the eye level of a young child.

The call was made by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the country's top economic planner, and the State Council's working body on women and children in recently released policy guidelines.

The concept of "child-friendly cities" emerged during China's 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025) when cities were encouraged to support children's safe and healthy development. By the end of 2025, a total of 116 cities had launched pilot programs, benefiting over 110 million children.

Now, the effort is entering a new phase: from scattered urban pilots to a nationwide, institutionalized framework spanning both urban and rural areas at a higher level.

"It is not just a physical upgrade of public spaces," said Zhang Jing, former chief planner of the China Academy of Urban Planning and Design. "It represents a deeper reshaping of how cities are planned and governed."

In earlier years, the task was to build more playgrounds and activity centers. Today, the focus has shifted to whether those facilities actually work for children.

Consider a familiar scene for many parents: lifting a toddler to an adult-height sink in a public restroom, which can be both cumbersome and a little risky. The new guidelines call for more child-accessible facilities in malls, transit hubs and tourist sites.

"Children are not simply smaller-sized adults but users with distinct needs," said Zhang.

Equally significant is the push to give children a voice. For decades, decisions affecting children were often made by adults on their behalf. Now, children are increasingly being included in decision-making, helping ensure their needs are better understood.

In Beijing, planners have begun inviting children to participate in the design process. Dubbed "junior planners," they have contributed ideas for mazes and spotting scopes in parks with heights suitable for children.

A group known as the "child observer team" has taken this participatory model further in Yiwu City, east China's Zhejiang Province.

During visits to bus terminals, children pointed out problems adults had overlooked: handrails too high to grip, route maps too elevated to read. Transport operators responded by lowering fixtures and redesigning interiors. Over the past three years, more than 50 suggestions from these young observers have been adopted.

Such efforts are increasingly being formalized. In some communities, children's councils have been established and meet regularly to discuss neighborhood improvements.

The push extends beyond physical infrastructure to public services, stressing the prioritization of children in service provision.

Hospitals in Dongguan, south China's Guangdong Province, are introducing one-stop pediatric care to spare parents the task of carrying their children from room to room, while some facilities are piloting "no-cry" surgical environments and training medical staff in child psychology.

The guidelines also encourage more flexible local policies, such as easing height and age limits for free admission to some scenic areas and on public transport.

Other public service measures outlined include moving gradually toward free preschool education, incorporating the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine into the national immunization program, under which free vaccination will be provided for girls aged 13 and above, and promoting the establishment of 24-hour green channel for treatment of critically ill children aged 0 to 3.

Prioritizing children in public service provision helps ease the burden on families and supports the development of a more birth-friendly society, said Hu Wenzhe, an associate researcher at the Academy of Macroeconomic Research under the NDRC.

Amid the demographic challenges of declining birth rates and rapid population aging, child-friendly development aligns with China's drive to advance Chinese modernization with high-quality population development.

Children growing up today will enter the workforce around 2035, when China will see that socialist modernization is basically realized, and by 2050 when China will develop itself into a great modern socialist country, they will become a backbone force of China's modernization drive.

Childhood, a critical period for shaping personality and building capabilities that directly impact population quality, is seen as both the foundation of high-quality population development and a "golden window" for investment in human capital, according to an NDRC article.

Building on earlier pilot programs, China has also emphasized child-friendly development in its outline for the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030), calling for a more supportive environment for the next generation.

Child-friendliness is not just about building spaces, noted Bao Leiping, deputy director of the Institute of Sociology at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, stressing the need for a more child-friendly social ethos.

"It is about whether children are seen, heard and respected," Bao said.