The Most dynamic of Beijing's New Towns is Beijing's Shunyi A Green International Port

You may never know that you have been to Shunyi District, but that's where you are when you step out of an aircraft at Beijing's Capital Airport. You may not be familiar with its products, but you are consuming them when you drink a Yanjing Beer or some Niulanshan Erguotou or Huiyuan fruit juices.

Shenyi's Sanhe City, located near the airport, specializes in the modern manufacturing and aviation service industries and is home to many of the capital city's most famous enterprises. Shunyi is located northeast of Downtown Beijing, east of Changping District and Yanqing County, south of Huairou and Miyun districts, east of Pinggu District, and north of Tongzhou District.  

About 95.7 percent of the 1,021-square-kilometre district is mostly flat. It is 45 kilometres wide and 30 kilometres in length from south to north, with a population of 548,000, 19 towns, 3 subdistrict offices, 420 villages. The district has one national-level export process area, the Tianzhu Export Process Zone; two city-level industrial development areas, the Tianzhu Airport Industrial Zone and the Linhe Industrial Development Zone; two city-level industrial manufacturing bases, the Beijing Automobile Manufacturing Base and the Northern Microelectronics Manufacturing Base; and three listed companies, Yanjing Beer, Shunxin Agriculture and Konggang Technology.

Shunyi District recognizes the opportunities arising from China's entry into the World Trade Organization and Beijing's hosting of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, and it is seizing upon these opportunities to develop an information industry-based industrial development strategy. The economic growth of the district is led by high-tech industrial groups such as the Tianzhu Airport Industrial Zone and Tianzhu Export Process Zone; modern manufacturing bases, the Linhe Industrial Development Zone and Beijing Hyundai Automobile Company; urban-style food and drink industrial bases represented by the Yanjing, Huiyuan and Kunpeng enterprises; modern service industrial groups such as the Airport Logistics Base; the Chaobai River Travel Industrial Belt and Wenyu River Green Ecological Corridor; and the modern agricultural industry is represented by "San Gao" agriculture pilot districts (focusing on high-outputs, high-quality, high-efficiency).

There were 38 projects with total investments of more than 100 million yuan (US$12.1million). Total investment in the district was valued at 16.6 billion yuan (US$2.02 billion) and the industrial output was set at 70.49 billion yuan (US$8.58 billion) in 2004.

Development Zones

There were 3,648 enterprises in the district at the end of 2004, with an industrial output rising to 11.09 billion yuan (US$1.35 billion). The total output value was 61.27 billion yuan (US$7.46 billion); sales values and profits were reported at 59.19 billion yuan (US$7.2 billion) and 3.86 billion yuan (470.15 million). These figures epitomize the importance of industry in the district.

The 6.6-square-kilometre Beijing Tianzhu Export Process Zone is the only national-level processing area and one of only 15 export processing areas in China. There are 12 import projects with an investment of US$310 million, more than 300 foreign-owned enterprises from 20 countries with an investment of 27 billion yuan (US$3.28 billion), yielding an average of about 80 million yuan (US$9.74 million) per project. There are 23 of the zone's 60 transnational corporations are listed as top-500 enterprises in the world.

The Beijing Linhe Industrial Development Zone is one of China's Northern Microelectronics Manufacturing's industrial bases. It has a modern manufacturing industrial base oriented towards microelectronics, automobile manufacturing, digitally controlled machine tool and biopharmaceutical production.

Shunyi District is expected to become the Beijing Automobile Manufacturing Base. Many automobile manufacturing projects, including those of Hyundai, Beijing Jeep, Yanfeng Visteon, Handa air-conditioner, Johnson Controls Seating are located in Shunyi, which plans to become a leader of Beijing's modern manufacturing industrial complex.

Beijing Hyundai's second production facility is expected to produce 300,000 automobiles annually, increasing to 600,000 automobiles in 2007 in Shunyi.

Construction on the 12-billion-yuan (US$1.46 billion), 200,000-square-metre facility is expected to begin by the end of 2005 and to be completed by the first half of 2007. About 600,000 complete automobiles, 450,000 generators, 200,000 gear boxes and six to eight new-models of cars will be produced by Hyundai by 2008. The new Tucson model, Hyundai's third in China, is expected to appear in the first half of 2005 joining the company's Sonata and Elantra models in the market. Another new model, the NF Sonata, is expected to hit the market in September 2005.

Brands for Modern Travel and Services

The distribution services industry has become another of Shunyi's leading industries, on the strength of the improved management of its service industry and its expansion of merchandise distribution.

The Airport distribution base is developing smoothly and improving every year. Sixty enterprises signed contracts to join the Tianzhu Airport Distribution Base, representing an investment of 3.23 billion yuan (US$393.4 billion) in 2004.

Investments totalling 18.2 billion yuan (US$2.21 billion) by China Aviation Freight Transportation Corporation, China Aviation Oil Corporation, China Aviation Material Corporation, China Xinhua Aviation Corporation and 312 other aviation-related enterprises located in the area lead its development.

The travel industry is also developing quickly. Recreation-oriented businesses such as the Beijing Countryside Golf Club, Beijing International Golf Club, Green Holiday Inn, Beijing Countryside Horse-race Court and Lianhua Mountain Skiing Court are located in this area. Other activities and service centres include the Beijing Four-season Skiing Court, Qiaobo Ice World, Jinwuxing Conference Centre, Luowa Hotel, Chaobai River Holiday Area, Tangzhi Mountain and the Wetland of Hanshi Bridge.

The district's financial-services network is being perfected. China Industrial and Commercial Bank, China Construction Bank, China Agricultural Bank, Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China, Beijing Commercial Bank, United Credit Cooperative Xiangcai Securities Corporation, China Southern Securities Corporation Limited, China Life Insurance (group) Company, China Pacific Insurance Company, Beijing Guangcai Guarantee Corporation, Xinshun Guarantee Corporation and Xinhao Investment Centre have all established branches in Shunyi.

After shipping about 144,000 vehicles by the end of 2004, Hyundai began production of the Elantra, a second new model, on December 23, 2004. The automobile industry is a huge addition to the district's economy.

Since Hyundai Automobile was established in Shunyi, the Korean automobile industry has shifted its focus to China, especially its spare-parts manufacturers. To develop a first-class industrial area and attract more foreign investment, the Commercial Bureau has begun to invite officials from Korean organizations in China to visit and has advised them about business opportunities in the Korean Enterprises Area.

Beijing's new urban development plan, which focuses on "two axes, two belts and multiple centres," the expansion of Capital Airport, the Olympic Games venue construction in Shunyi, the Beijing Automobile Manufacturing Base's Construction and the Chaobai River's comprehensive improvement plan, including improvements in wastewater treatment, ensures there will be plenty of impetus for new development in Shunyi, the best of Beijing's polycentric New Towns.

After a ten-day competition that began on September 2001, the Shunyi District Government adopted a new logo for the district. The words "Beijing Shunyi, a Green International Harbour" were chosen as text for the logo that was selected by a panel of experts and committee members. The words "Green International Harbour" symbolize Shunyi's desire to become an environmentally protected, harmonious, totally open, highly developed, and modern international district.