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Green, intelligent Xiongan New Area to become a reality

Source: Xinhua | 00:00 UTC+8 April 2, 2019 | Print Edition

XIONGAN New Area, a millennium green city featuring innovative development in north China, is set to become a reality.

On April 1, 2017, China announced plans to establish Xiongan New Area, located about 100 kilometers southwest of Beijing, in what an official statement called “a strategy that will have lasting importance for the millennium to come and a significant national event.”

Chen Gang, vice governor of Hebei Province who also heads the management committee of Xiongan, said a large-scale building phase will start this year.

In January, China’s central authorities approved the 2018-2035 master plan for the area. More than 200 teams and 1,000 experts from China and abroad participated in the drafting of the plan, Chen said. “A carefully drafted plan ensures the smooth and quick construction of the area in the future.”

Xiongan spans three counties in Hebei — Rongcheng, Anxin and Xiongxian. Work is under way to lay the underground pipelines for water, power, gas infrastructure to the area, which is expected to grow to 1,770 square kilometers, roughly the size of Shenzhen.

Construction is slated to begin soon in the Rongdong area, a 13-square-kilometer residential area that is expected to be home to 170,000 people. The first batch of residents, both resettled local residents and new citizens, will move into the compound by 2020, said Yu Zhenhai, director of the area’s comprehensive law enforcement bureau.

Authorities are making detailed plans to transform ordinary rural towns into 22 special townships, each featuring different characteristics such as intelligent technologies, elderly-friendly environment and creative industries, he said.

A hive of construction activities is under way at Zangang Township, in the area’s northeastern part, to build an intercity railway between Beijing and Xiongan. The express link, set to be operational by 2020, will cut the commuting time down to 30 minutes.

Xiongan will become a modern city that is green and intelligent with “relatively strong competitiveness and human-environment harmony by 2035,” according to the master plan that stresses high-quality development.

Before building the new city, the first step is to add greenery and plant trees. Near the railway construction site is an extensive forest that has grown in the last two years. The afforestation project, spanning over 7,000 hectares, started in November 2017, and it took more than 50,000 people to plant over 11 million pine, peach and locust trees.

Gao Qiuliang is one of the tree planters. “Each tree has its own identity card because they are digitally managed so that we know when a certain section of trees needs weeding, watering or trimming,” he said.

This year, more than 13,000 hectares of trees will be planted. The forest coverage rate in Xiongan will increase from 11 percent to 40 percent in future.

Intensive efforts are also under way to clean up and feed the vast Baiyangdian wetland.

From February, a pump station started operation at Baiyangdian to draw water from the Yellow River, which is about 482km away. The station feeds water into the wetland during the winter season when the water level is low.

Xiongan’s polluting industries are being relocated or transformed with environment-friendly technologies. Only research and exhibition functions will be retained, said Liang Yuan, deputy director of the area’s management committee.

“In the future, about 70-80 percent of the growth of Xiongan will come from high-end and high-tech industries,” said Wu Hequan, deputy director of the expert advisory committee of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei coordinated development.

Talent for development

Das Intellitech, a Shenzhen-based company specializing in intelligent solutions in medical, transportation and architecture, has set up its north China headquarters in Xiongan.

“Less than a week after our new office was set up in Xiongan, we were able to hire the staff and talent we need and want,” said board chairman Lu Feng.

The company is among the first group of enterprises to establish operations in the Xiongan citizen service center. “Our experience in Pudong in Shanghai and Shenzhen has been helpful, and in building Xiongan, our proficiency and technological level is further boosted,” he said.

“Many other cities, including Shenzhen, are asking our technical staff back to share the latest experience,” he said.

As per plan, Xiongan will prioritize industries such as new-generation information technology, modern life science and biotechnological industry, new material, modern services, and green agricultural sectors. The area will focus on attracting talent in these industries, as well as in finance, digital, education and medical fields, said Liang Yuan.

Xiongan is aiming to become a significant part of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei cluster and plans to take over Beijing’s non-capital functions and provide a Chinese solution to “big city malaise,” including overcrowding and pollution.

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