Business Traveller (Asia-Pacific)
CAPITAL DEVELOPMENT
Beijing is all set to become a 130-million-person megapolis
"From now on people won’t have to ask which province you are from, they will just ask which ring you are in,” claimed one sarcastic netizen in response to news that Beijing was to begin work on a so-called “Seventh Ring Road”. Set to open in 2017, the latest – and largest – of the concentric highways that loop the Chinese capital will run for over 2,000km, with around 90 percent of its length being built through neighbouring Hebei Province.
But as well as further expanding the definition of “Beijing”, the expressway is being billed as the backbone of a colossal 130-millionperson megalopolis. The Capital Economic Circle (nicknamed “Jing-Jin-Ji”) will see Beijing absorb eight large cities in Hebei and link the Chinese capital with Tianjin, itself one of the country’s largest metropolitan areas (with more than 10 million residents).
Ostensibly, the plan is one of necessity. Rapid urbanisation has placed a huge strain on Beijing’s infrastructure, services and economy. The city suffers from water shortages, severe traffic, soaring property prices and a well-documented battle with pollution. With as many as 600,000 new migrants arriving each year, the government is now backing a Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei megalopolis as the most effective way to curb the seemingly unsustainable rate of expansion.
But rather than becoming a megacity in the sense of being a continuous urban area, planners see Jing-Jin-Ji encompassing an interconnected network of cities that operate as a single entity. Transport infrastructure features heavily, with an additional 9,000km of expressways and 9,500km of railways expected to be built by 2020. New business zones and residential areas will also be constructed to better distribute the
population across the 216,000 sq km region.
Under the government’s strategy, each area of the megalopolis will take on its own set of specialised roles to encourage industries (especially heavy-polluting ones) to flow out from Beijing. Few details have been disclosed since the plan was formally announced in April, but it appears that Hebei will act as an industrial satellite with affordable housing, while Tianjin will expand in sectors such as shipping, logistics and technology, offering lower operational and labour costs than in the capital.
Where sectors overlap, different cities will take responsibility for individual parts of the production chain. It is hoped the creation of distinct economic functions can reduce competition for resources, while increasing productivity and freeing up Beijing to act as a centre for culture, politics, international business and innovation. It is the capital that will feel most of the benefits, according to Chen Chen, an architect and partner at the urban design firm Remix.
“I think for Beijing itself, (the megalopolis) is definitely a good idea because it moves some of the negative elements of the city out to Hebei and Tianjin. This means that we will see more clean and innovative industries headquartered in Beijing, with all the production lines and manufacturing shifting outwards.”
Although critics believe the strategy merely moves problems, rather than solving them, officials argue that balancing the economies of northeast China will benefit the region as a whole. Moreover, it is hoped that the cities’ collective
economic clout can boost the area’s global standing and attract more outside investment. Already accounting for 11 per cent of the country’s GDP, the region’s joint output will surpass that of New York and Tokyo by 2025.
Such optimism stems from the success of similar projects elsewhere in China, Chen said.
“This idea of a megacity is about the northeast trying to catch up with fast emerging city clusters in the Pearl River and Yangtze River Deltas,” she said.“But they each managed to develop in an evenly-distributed manner with a high GDP across both areas. But so far, Beijing has been sucking the resources from surrounding cities and has become an obstacle to their development.”
What makes the challenge in the northeast distinct from projects in the south is the huge development gap between Beijing and elsewhere in the megalopolis. This is particularly the case for Hebei, a poor, steel-making province, heavily dependent on coal and unable to stem the flow of talent to the capital. Given this disparity, the project may exacerbate rather than alleviate Beijing’s problems, said Jan Wampler, a professor of architecture at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
“If the government goes ahead with what it is planning then it is only going to increase the number of people moving to Beijing hoping – or thinking – they are going to find a better job,” he said.
“There is already a floating population of somewhere between 1.5 and three million people living ‘underground’ in the city and it will only get worse.”
Convincing companies and individuals to relocate away from the city will require more than just efficient transportation. Tianjin has been linked to Beijing via high speed rail since 2008 (the 30-minute journey time is significantly shorter than many commutes across the capital), yet it has failed to attract the interest that government planners had hoped for.
In fact, the city’s unfulfilled promise is symbolised by its 47-building replica of Wall Street, Yujiapu Financial District, which lies empty and, in parts, unfinished. Tianjin may continue to experience above-average GDP growth, but it has accrued huge amounts of debt
in the process and there is scant evidence that it has relieved any of the pressure on Beijing.
The megalopolis’ fate may instead be decided by the ability to integrate the region’s “software” — communication networks, services and governance. But if this is not dependent on physical connectivity, then building up the capacity of smaller third-tier cities elsewhere in the country may offer a more sustainable solution, said MIT’s Wampler.
“Software that interconnects is the answer, but not for just for these three areas – for China,” he said. “If you bolster the communication systems across the country, then it means you don’t necessarily have to be near Beijing, you could be someplace else in the country and still be connected.”
Nonetheless, after decades of indecision, the project now appears to be in full motion. With political observers suggesting that President Xi Jinping sees the megalopolis as a crucial part of his administration’s legacy, the northeast of China is set to transform radically over the next decade. Whether the cluster eases or worsens the burden on the capital remains to be seen.