Master Plan to Change the Face of Beijing

It's as much a cynical joke as serious question when, these days, Beijing people greet each other with: "Where were you trapped today?" They are referring mainly to the morning and evening rush hours, when traffic gridlocks and tailbacks are the rule rather than exception. This is the inevitable scenario for any rapidly developing city with a burgeoning economy, an increasing population, a huge number of construction sites including those for the 2008 Olympic Games, with literally thousands of new private cars and commercial/industrial vehicles appearing daily on highways and streets. It follows that enormous demands are placed on bus and taxi services, in themselves part of the overall traffic problem. 

For hundreds of years, a combination of tradition and convenience dictated that any new buildings in the Chinese capital be erected around what today is known as Old Beijing, whose centre was essentially the preserve of major government buildings and thus the seat of the city's power and commerce. 

As more and more official, residential, commercial and other buildings became necessary over many years, the only place they could go was around long-established Old Beijing - a developmental process that modern town-planners term "concentric and coaxial growth" but which, in times past, created mini-conurbations that were largely built in a higgledy-piggledy fashion.   

Such constructions took some of the administrative strain of running the city, but still left too great a concentration of myriad duties for local government functionaries at the very core of Old Beijing. Officials were literally drowning in the ever-increasing amount of paperwork that comes with a growing city. London and other European capitals had similar problems in the 18th and 19th centuries particularly.

Today, most have regionalized many government and other official departments, one example being Britain's huge Driver Vehicle Licensing Centre (DVLC) which is now in South Wales. In the past, vehicle owners and drivers could obtain or renew licenses where they lived or in a nearby town.

Capital on the Move

Beijing is now developing at a faster rate than ever in its 850-year history as China's capital. This is why, in 2004, the Beijing Municipal Government invited more than 200 international and national planning and other experts to advise on its new Urban Development Plan, only the second of its kind since the founding of the PRC in 1949.

An outline plan, whose revision was completed in September 2004, has been passed by the Standing Committee of the State Council. The plan's goal is to affirm Beijing as a true national capital and to make the city a world metropolis, a famous cultural entity and a city truly fit for human habitation.

In this context, "national capital" means the strengthening of its functions and the realization, in terms of investment and prestige, of its advantages as China's leading city. "World metropolis" is described as further development of the capital's economy, with focus on modern services and the enhancement of high-tech and other 21st-century manufacturing industries that will further reinforce Beijing's drive and competitive ability on the world stage.

"Famous cultural city" reflects Beijing's determination to carry forward its historical culture, develop cultural industries and further its efforts to date to create a compatible and diversified cultural environment. "A city fit for human habitation" is shorthand for the provision of sufficient vacancies for the working populace, and the creation of an environmentally conscious and protected, beautiful Beijing.

Under the Urban Development Plan, the city will develop in three phases. Firstly, realization of basic modernization and the formation of a "basic framework" of a modern international city between 2004 and 2008. Next, after the Olympic Games, will be the completion of modernization and the emergence of an outstanding international modern city. The third-phase aim is for Beijing to become a continuously developing city where the economy, society and ecology develop in harmony in an all-round manner.

Population Increase

By the end of 2020, the population of Beijing will be about 18 million, with an annual growth rate of 1.4 percent. People with Beijing hukou (registered in a Beijing household) will total around 13.5 million while those from elsewhere, who live in the city for more than six months, will number about 4.5 million. Some 16 million of the total (about 90 percent) will live in urban areas, and show an annual growth rate of 0.6 percent, rising to 0.8 percent.

Steps will be taken to transfer people from Central Beijing to the planned new towns or to other small towns. This will reduce the central-city population to around 8.5 million, and increase dwellers in small towns to 5.7 million, and in smaller towns to 1.8 million. The number of people living in the core of Central Beijing will be around 5.4 million, 1.1 million of whom will live in the what is known as Old Beijing. About 2.7 million people will live in properties surrounding this area, leaving 0.4 million in the central city.

The new Urban Development Plan also calls for extensions to Beijing's two main axes, the long-established north-south, and its more modern east-west Chang'An Jie counterpart. As major highways, both are the city's backbones as well as traffic arteries. Also on the blueprint are "two development belts" and "multiple centres." The eastern belt takes in Huairou, Miyun, Shunyi, Tongzhou, Yizhuang and Pinggu districts, while its western twin includes Yanqing, Changping, Mentougou, Fangshan and Daxing districts. The "multiple centres" embrace the Zhongguancun Science and Technology Park; the Olympic Park area; and CBD; giving a total of eight functional central city areas.

New Towns

The plan also outlines Central Beijing as having an area of 1,085 square kilometres, the core of which, Huilongguan and Beiyuanbei, will be given over to politics, culture and other important functions. 

Eleven planned new towns are listed as Tongzhou, Shunyi, Yizhuang, Daxing, Fangshan, Changping, Huairou, Miyun, Pinggu, Yanqing, Mentougou. Three of these, Tongzhou, Shunyi and Yizhuang, located in the eastern development belt, are earmarked as "municipal emphasizing" towns, so called because they will be the main destinations for people to be transferred from the city. They will also be the locations of new industries.

The number of private cars on Beijing's roads by 2020 is expected to total five million, while the 52 million vehicles of all types daily on the roads at present are expected to increase to 55 million. Industrial/commercial transport in the centre of the city is forecast to increase from its present 27 percent of total transport to 50 percent by 2020. Rail and express transportation will between them make up 50 percent of total transportation overall.

Beijing is to develop a comprehensive passenger-transportation network of various modes of travel, using a combination of public buses, trains and in cooperation with other means of travel. A 570-kilometre railway network will cover the whole of Central Beijing, connecting with subway trains and light and suburban railways to Tongzhou, Yizhuang, Shunyi, Daxing, Fangshan and Changping.

Emphasis on Environment

With its plan getting under way prior to 2010, and maturing in the decade immediately thereafter, Beijing is determined to create an environmentally protected, beautiful, constantly developing ecological city - a "fresh air" capital throughout. Regulations to this end will be strictly applied, including tough restrictions on areas of exploration, such as for oil or minerals.

Meanwhile, efforts will be made to change the emphasis of Beijing's 'materialistic' economy from products-consumption mode to one more attuned to environmental protection. This would mean far more attention being paid to public services, recycling of throwaway items in the best sense, and what the development plan calls a more "intelligent" economy which sees the city constantly developing and promoting forestation, beautification, and sustaining a fertile and healthy ecosystem.

By 2020, the forestation coverage rate of the whole city is planned to reach 55 percent from the current 38 percent. Urban "green" land coverage, at present 44 percent, will increase to 48 percent; resulting in 40-45 square metres of green area per capita, and 15-18 square metres of public greenery per capita. Much of Beijing's green space is found in its mountainous and plain areas as well as in the city itself, the latter boasting many large parks and gardens.

Annual power consumption in Beijing by 2020 will be about 110 billion kilowatt hours (kWh), provided by the Beijing-Tianjin-Tangshan and North China Electric network. When changes to the centre of the city are completed, and new towns have been built, a gas pipeline network will supply 600,000-700,000 tons of liquefied petroleum gas each year. By using such environmentally friendly energy, instead of coal, urban air quality is predicted to improve by 60 percent by 2020.

Domestic water consumption is likely to remain at 185 litres to 300 litres per person per day until 2020, after which it will begin to increase by up to 100 percent. Rainwater pipeline coverage of Central Beijing and the new urban areas will exceed 90 percent, while the whole city's total sewage quantity will reach 1.8 billion cubic metres a year. In addition, the municipal government will set up a retrieval system for recycled water as a main source of the city's forestation programme, or used in lake ecology, road cleaning and for cooling purposes in industry. 

Information Unlimited

Also on the urban development drawing board is an accelerated, information-intensive programme known as "Build Digital Beijing" which encourages public access to all manner of social and other information, a service that conforms with systems used by metropolises in other parts of the world.

Equally being planned is a comprehensive specialized agency geared to disaster prevention and reduction, including flood- and fire-control, and an earthquake detection system. Also in the agency's brief will be the defence of the air we breathe, and precautions against other natural calamities.

The urban development plan says that Old Beijing needs to be renovated and protected. First, however, the municipal government needs to confirm its functions and suitability for a new look, including dredging out unsuitable activities and industries, and encouraging development to suit the traditional cultural and tourist attributes that characterize the area. In addition, the government will reduce its resident population, improve the quality of its social structure, and strictly control its overall development.