Xiongan makes headway
Infrastructure construction, anti-pollution efforts already in progress
This April marks the one year anniversary of the establishment of the Xiongan New Area in North China’s Hebei Province. Although construction plans for the new economic zone have not yet been unveiled, building infrastructure and tree planting is ongoing. Local authorities are also stepping up efforts to combat environmental pollution and improve the local water ecosystem. This is the first part of a two-part story.
On a barren farmland in Zangang village in the Xiongan New Area, North China’s Hebei Province, a worker surnamed Yin is busy planting trees.
Each sapling is tied with a small card that reads “the Xiongan forest” along with a Quick Response code below that can be scanned to track the plant’s identity number .
“More than 30 kinds of plants will be placed on over 500 mu (33 hectares) of land in Zangang. We started this project about two weeks ago,” Yin told the Global Times on Thursday.
“It will take me and my 100 coworkers two months to finish the planting in Zangang and then we will turn to the nearby Hanzhuang village to start planting more trees on land that stretches across more than 1,500 mu,” Yin explained.
With the aim to forge the Xiongan New Area into a green city, local authorities are strengthening efforts to improve the area’s ecological system by planting trees across 100,000 mu of land throughout 2018, Chen Gang, deputy to the 13th National People’s Congress and head of the Xiongan New Area administration, said on March 8 during this year’s two sessions, a key annual meeting.
“Planting trees in the new area will make the air more fresh and the environment better, which will benefit future generations,” said Liu Ganqiu, a worker who contributed to the forest planting in Zangang.
Construction underway
With the one year anniversary of the establishment of the Xiongan New Area quickly approaching, the economic zone, “a crucial strategy for the next millennium,” is ready to take on a new look as construction gets underway.
China announced the establishment of the Xiongan New Area on April 1, 2017, as part of measures to transfer non-capital functions out of Beijing and advance the coordinated development of the Beijing-TianjinHebei region. The new economic zone is about 100 kilometers southeast of Beijing and spans the counties of Xiongxian, Rongcheng and Anxin in Hebei.
On February 28, the 30-minute city-to-city railway between Beijing and Xiongan began construction in the new area. It is due to stretch 92.4 kilometers with five stops between Beijing’s Daxing district and Hebei’s Bazhou City.
“The section from Bazhou to Xiongxian of the Beijing-Xiongan railway started construction on March 13. It is the first infrastructure project to be started in Xiongxian,” said an employee of Shanghai Civil Engineering Co under the China Railway Engineering Corp, who only gave his surname as Jiang.
Jiang works in a component prefabrication plant which oversees part of the construction of the BaizhouXiongxian railway section. He told the Global Times on Thursday that the construction of the section, which requires the labor of more than 1,000 workers, will take roughly three years.
“Tremendous changes will definitely take place in Xiongan in the future. As the first group of construction workers to operate in the new area, I feel quite honored and proud,” he said.
The Global Times on Friday also noticed that the construction of the civic service center for the Xiongan New Area, which is located in the eastern part of Rongcheng, is nearly finished.
“Today is the 109th day of constructing the center, which is expected to be completed on April 1,” a security guard at the construction site, who preferred to remain anonymous, told the Global Times on Friday.
The construction area of the civic service center is nearly 100,000 square meters, with the whole project costing around 800 million yuan ($126.7 million).
The center will be used for meetings, conferences and administrative services.
Vital mission
Combating pollution and restoring the area’s ecological environment in Baiyangdian, the largest freshwater lake in northern China, will be one of the major tasks involved in the construction of the new area throughout the year of 2018, said Chen during the two sessions meeting.
Baiyangdian, which covers 366 square kilometers of water area in Xiongan, was once known as “the Kidney of North China.” But over the past few decades, the lake has gradually been polluted with industrial and household garbage.
“There are more than 60 small villages surrounding Baiyangdian and each of them is devoted to fighting pollution,” said Deng Hezi, deputy Party committee secretary of Guolikou, a small village that lies just east of Baiyangdian.
Deng noted that Guolikou also started tackling pollution two months ago and more than 1,000 cubic meters of household garbage in the village has been removed so far.
“We send cars and ships to carry household garbage and sludge out of the village everyday and our mission this year is to clean up every corner of the village,” Deng said, noting that villagers are very supportive of the efforts to protect the environment.
Firm support
About 20 kilometers northwest of Guolikou lies a village named Dawang, which is supported by the traditional garment industry.
Villagers in Dawang told the Global Times on Friday that the establishment of the Xiongan New Area has brought and will further bring changes to their businesses. Those villagers have been concerned that the area would make it hard for traditional manufacturers, especially small companies and family workshops, to remain in the new economic zone, which features innovative and hightech industries.
“Some clothing accessories like zips are no longer produced in nearby factories, a bid to avoid environmental pollution. We now have to buy them from other factories in southern provinces,” said Niu Xingwang, a villager in Dawang, who owns a clothing factory that manufactures down jackets that are sold in China and also across the world in markets like Russia.
The central government is aiming to build Xiongan into a new benchmark for China’s economic zones, Cong Yi, a professor at the Tianjin University of Finance and Economics, told the Global Times on Monday.
Traditional clothing companies are expected to seek industrial upgrading by collaborating with other manufacturers, Niu said.
The soon-to-be-released construction plan is expected to evaluate Xiongan’s traditional industries and determine a proper growth model, experts said, adding that energy-intensive and heavy-polluting industries are likely to be shut down.