Beijing city planning unveiling a new blueprint

According to the news of January 13 by People's Daily the Chang'an (Everlasting Peace) Avenue is going to display its vigor and vitality of Beijing that is forging ahead. The traditional north-south axis running through the Imperial Palace will help elucidate the romantic charm of a long history and culture in the ancient city of Beijing. The west of Beijing is going to feature an "ecological belt" in lush green and the east a "development zone" with a string of industrial spotlightsˇ­ˇ­

At the routine meeting of the State Council held on 12 January the "General City Planning for Beijing Municipality (2004-2020)" was approved in principle. Tan Xuxiang, Associate general planner who attended the meeting as a nonvoting delegate said joyously: "The people of the whole country will be concerned about Beijing in future and the new city planning has opened up a window for the people to get to know what Beijing will look like in future."

A great breakthrough in the new plan is that a very big rearrangement has been made in the disposition of spaces in line with the requirement for a uniformed development of urban and rural areas, changing the "unitary center" pattern for development of the past, and instead it has been replaced by a spatial city structure of "two axes, two belts and poly-centers".

That is to improve the "two axes", including the carrying-on and developing of the traditional axis of Beijing and the improvement of the construction of Chang'an Avenue and its extended sections, so as to ensure the function display of the capital city and its cultural function as well.

That is to strengthen and reinforce the developing area along Tongzhou, Shunyi and Yizhuang in the eastern part of the city so as to make a deployment in the development of economy and industry in Beijing and to make a uniformed rearrangement of the "ecological belt in the west" along Daxing, Changping and Yanqing in order to form an ecological screen, providing an affable environment for people to live in the city.

And the construction of the Zhongguancun Hi-tech Park core area, Olympic central area and the CBD area for urban functions has to be carried out at the same time. On this basis, the plan to be carried out is, by offering a guidance, to form a structure of "city center ¨C new city ¨C towns" i.e. a "city-and-town" structure.

Up to the present moment, 11 new cities of Tongzhou, Shunyi and Yizhuang and others have been put into the plan that will help take up the function of dispersing the population from the central part of the city and bring about a regional development.

The new plan emphasizes that it must stick to the integrated preservation of the history and culture by taking people as basis for outset, changing the "heavy demolishment for large-scale construction" into that for an "organic rejuvenation" of the city, namely it has not only to keep the necessary things and sizes of the old city for the protection of an integral image and true leftover from history but also to actively tap for appropriate pattern for improving the infrastructure in the old city, to disperse too dense a population out from the city so as to improve the living and production conditions of the people in the old city area.

The new plan has also dealt with the seven aspects in regard of the ecological enduring ability, resources conditions, job-opportunity and employment and others to demonstrate the endurableness of the population scale and tendency in Beijing. Up to 2003, the permanent residents in Beijing came to a total of 14.56 million and by the time of 2020 the total population will be put under 18 million.

Beijing is to provide guidance to a reasonable disposition of its population, help making the people to go and live in new cities and small towns. By then, the population in the central city area will be reduced from the present 6.5 million to 5.4 million with the population controlled under 1.1 million in the old city area.

On learning that the general city plan has been approved Li Xiaojiang, a famous city planner, deputy chief of China City Planning Institute felt very happy by saying "the general city planning has not only brought out the stratagem and farsightedness for the development of the capital but has also taken into consideration of the harmonious development for Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei province, indicating a scientific viewpoint for development and so it is a relatively rational and mature plan."

By People's Daily Online