Beijing's new urban master plan approved

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The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council approved the draft of Beijing Urban Master Plan for the next 20 years on Wednesday.

The new plan has now become an official blueprint that will formulate Beijing’s layout up to 2035.

It will put an end to the current urban sprawl, and make Beijing a first-class harmonious and livable capital by dispersing non-capital functions and solving urban problems such as an overcrowded downtown and air pollution.

A view of Beijing. /Xinhua Photo

To ease the problems of the big city, the blueprint, for example, will restructure the layout of the city into a central city area, a sub-center, two axes, and 10 suburban areas.

Yao Dongmei, director and associate of the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA), a Dutch architectural company, said the new plan is in line with the world trend in urban development.

"It’s similar to the urban development of metropolises such as Paris and Tokyo, highlighted by the development of sub-city centers that could ease the burden caused by increasing population," she said.

The blueprint also appears to continue to curb the city’s growing population by keeping the city’s long-term residents under 23 million by 2020, compared with the current 21 million-plus residents.

The city plans to reduce the amount of rural and urban land available for construction while expanding its environmentally controlled area.

The view of Beijing. /Xinhua Photo

With the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Province joint development strategy in mind, the new blueprint also requires a much bigger vision to accommodate regional interconnection.

Yao said the approval of the new plan is only the first step, adding that detailed plan would go as far as 2050.

She said a master plan is more like a bird’s eye view of the city's layout, which is far from enough for sustainable urban development.

What is more important are the detailed plans and careful management that can reach every single street, she stated.

Beijing's first urban blueprint was released in 1983 with a focus on population control. The current plan aims to improve the city’s layout and functions. Beijing’s urban development is changing from expanding to enhancing its overall structure. It is the first time that the capital city is promoting the concept of "less is more."