Construction on China’s ‘city of the future’ highlights Beijing’s renewed zeal for ambitious state planning

The Xiongan New Area, blessed by Beijing’s top brass and showered with resources, has become the new zenith of China’s building spree

Almost half of the local population worked in the textile industry in 2016, but many factories have had to shut down because they did not meet new environmental standards for the area

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Construction cranes engulf the landscape of the Xiongan New Area’s Rongdong residential zone, which could eventually be home to about 170,000 people. Photo: Simon Song

Amanda Leein Xiongan New Area

Published: 11:30am, 12 Sep 2020Updated: 11:41am, 12 Sep 2020

Countless towering cranes dominate the skyline in the Xiongan New Area of northeastern Hebei province, as construction ramps up at ground zero for one of China’s most ambitious projects – building a dream city from scratch.

China has vowed to spend billions on infrastructure projects this year in a bid to boost the nation’s economic recovery and stabilise the job market after the damage caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Xiongan, located about a two-hour drive south of central Beijing, is in the early stage of becoming a new metropolis after President Xi Jinping personally picked the site in April 2017 to form a “city of the future”.

The development is supposed to be innovative, green and resident-friendly – it is designed to accommodate head offices, institutions, schools and even hospitals to be relocated from Beijing to ease the capital’s growing congestion.

The central government also wants Xiongan to play a pivotal role in accelerating the development of the broader Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei corridor, which is intended to become an economic powerhouse in northern China – similar to the Pearl River Delta in the south near Shenzhen and Hong Kong, and the Yangtze River Delta in the east around Shanghai. Xi toured Xiongan in January 2019 and encouraged state and private companies to redouble their efforts to make it a success.

There is steady work here. We can get paid more than 10,000 yuan (US$1,462) a month. It’s not bad, but it’s hard work

Steel rebar worker

Xiongan is the new zenith of China’s building spree. Unlike many ambitious development plans backed by local authorities, the Xiongan project has been blessed directly by China’s top leadership and showered with central government resources. It is expected to be completed in 2035.

However, questions remain as to whether state planning can mould Xiongan into the “perfect city” that Communist Party leaders envision. As traditional manufacturing businesses – from shoemaking to garment manufacturing and metal recycling – are displaced, Beijing is betting big that they can be effectively replaced with advanced manufacturing and technology. Hebei is known as one of the most polluting provinces in China, and so far there are few high-end value chain facilities in the area surrounding Xiongan.