New area becoming a green, liveable and smart location

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The Xiongan New Area – located about 100 kilometers southwest of the Chinese capital – marks its first year in operation on Sunday. It essentially serves as a development hub for the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei economic triangle and houses a number of national research and development institutions.

Dozens of infrastructure projects are in progress, which will provide the basic needs of its residents. The area's public service center is expected to be completed in two weeks. It will become the New Area's first infrastructure project to be operational and function as a government service center, convention center, and office building.

"The central government requires us to maintain high standards, said Zhai Wei, China Xiongan Construction and Investment Group. "Quality control is our priority. From our first project, we aim to shape a Xiongan Standard."

Xiongan's construction projects are also being developed with the environment in mind. Baiyangdian – northern China's largest freshwater wetland – is one site planners have a close eye on.

Over the past year, the local government has cleaned it up and closed many factories which were damaging the local environment. More than two million trees were also planted throughout the year.

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The wetland and forest combined is 70 percent of the total area in Xiongan and forty percent of the area is covered by trees.

As part of China's measures to advance the concept of "coordinated development," the New Area located in Heibei Province has signed many strategic agreements with its two neighbor municipalities, Beijing and Tianjin.

Construction on a rail transit linking Beijing and Xiongan began in February. It will eventually shorten travel time between Beijing and Xiongan to 30 minutes.

Some Beijing schools have established campuses in Xiongan, so the two can share equal education resources.

In addition, cooperation in finance, insurance, communication and medical care are also underway.

"Xiongan can be constructed as an innovative center that gathers resources to better link upstream and downstream industries,” said Wu Hequan, deputy head of an expert advisory committee on the collaborative development of Beijing, Tianjin, and Hebei.

The Xiongan New Area has also drawn plenty of attention from private enterprises. Giants like Alibaba and Tencent, and scores of other high-tech companies have also agreed to build a new home in the area.