Beijing to relocate 5m to Hebei, Tianjin  

知情人稱北京市要疏散500萬人口到周邊地區

日前，中國國際經濟交流中心常務副理事長鄭新立在受訪時稱，北京與河北已達成一項協議，北京將向周邊疏散500萬人。為重新規劃北京，有學者提議在六環外設“畿輔新區”，范圍涵蓋北京大興、天津武清、河北廊坊、固安等，可容納超過500萬人口。[查看全文]

(ECNS) -- Beijing is planning to relocate about 5 million residents to the neighboring Hebei province and Tianjin municipality, part of an urbanization plan to help solve its development dilemma, Xinhua magazine Economy and Nation Weekly reported.

Zheng Xinli, deputy head of the China Center for International Economic Exchanges, said Beijing and Hebei provincial governments have reached an agreement about the relocation.

In 2004, Beijing issued an overall development plan aimed at curbing the city's population to less than 18 million by 2020.

But Beijing's residential population has already hit 20.6 million by the end of 2012, with migrants from other provinces contributing to the rapid growth.

An official from the municipal government said before that 70 percent of the migrant population live in the urban fringe of Beijing.

The metropolis is in a development dilemma because of smog, traffic jams, strained resources and population growth.

The Beijing Municipal Commission of Urban Planning told the magazine on Jan 12 that the city government was considering modifying the overall development plan and formalizing the plan of building a greater Beijing area.

Wu Liangyong, a professor at Tsinghua University and member of both the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said coordinating with Tianjin and Hebei is the only way to cure its "urban diseases."

The vision of a Greater Beijing features a 200-square-kilometer new zone covering Daxing district of Beijing, Wuqing district of Tianjin, and Langfang city and Guan county of Hebei province, which can accommodate more than 5 million people.

Experts say construction of the city's latest airport will create an opportunity. But some warned that the delta in the north is different from the Pearl and Yangtze River deltas, as Beijing borders less-developed areas of Hebei.