A highway bridge linking Xiong'an and Beijing is under construction. [Photo by Niu Rongjiang/For China Daily]
The vision for the country's showpiece is quiet efficiency-a place that's green, clean, convenient and tailored for the human dimension-as Mei Jia reports.
In Xiong'an New Area in Hebei province, one can feel the future. The city is emerging gradually, becoming visible to the eye, piece by piece, block by block.
In larger cities, the ability to send a child to school in five minutes, get to a hospitals from home in 10 minutes or reach places that provide daily necessities in 15 minutes, would feel like a dream.
But Xiong'an offers more. On its roads, there will be no manhole covers, no electrical wires overhead. All these are to be underground, out of sight.
Underground tunnels will also accommodate freight trucks without drivers. Powered by new energy, heavy carriers of goods and materials will be guided by advanced AI technology from station to station-all out of sight, returning the streets to pedestrians and their clean, quiet vehicles.
Above ground, most buildings will be no higher than 45 meters.
In Xiong'an, things are designed to be resident-oriented, with concepts of green living and green development implanted in its people and supported everywhere by cutting-edge, smart-city technology.
Seventy percent of the city will be covered by the so-called Blue and Green Areas-the respective zones for water and plants. Baiyangdian Lake, an important geographic feature, will nurture the new area's ecosystem, with a water surface of 270 square kilometers by 2019, and a plan for enlargement to 360 square km.
No wonder Bian Jianguo, director of the Xiong'an publicity center, says: "Here in Xiong'an, people will never be awakened by the alarm clocks, but by the birds chirping outside their windows."
Bian says before any actual construction begins, the ecosystem is considered, followed by planting and then by flood prevention and control.
The year set for the realization of the ambitious dream: 2035.
A group of graduate students from Tsinghua University's School of Journalism and Communication visit the construction site of business and service center in Rongdong district, Xiong'an. [Photo by Mei Jia/China Daily]
It took time to complete the new area's careful plan and scientific design for every inch of the land. The initial announcement was in April 2017, and Xiong'an has embarked on a new phrase of construction, Bian says.
The ride to Rongdong district, where residential buildings and a business service center are nearing completion, was a bumpy experience. Roads to the construction sites were paved with prefabricated planks for heavy trucks-a convenient idea for temporary assembly and easy removal that saved time and energy.
The traffic is heavy and sometimes jammed, yet it flows in order. Mobile internet signals are occasionally unstable because new 5G stations are just now being built.
A group of graduate students, aged 22 to 24, from Tsinghua University's School of Journalism and Communication visited Xiong'an earlier this month. On the construction sites, they found AI goggles for safe inspections, and smart apps for mobile phones or computers connected with cameras to verify the height and position of tower cranes.
Guo Jinsong, a group leader of a construction team working on the business service center, tells the students there are smart dust-control devices on the construction sites that will initiate spray systems to reduce dispersion.
Xiong'an might be one of the first cities in the world to be planned and built from scratch with high-tech intelligence.
"Smart and green are in the city's genes. So we'll finally have a city on the ground, underground and in the cloud," Bian says, adding that every pillar can be traced with an IP address. Likewise, every tree in Xiulin forest has a QR code to provide detailed information on its species origin, name, growth characteristics, gardener and more.
A test train runs on the high-speed railway line linking Xiong'an with Beijing Daxing International Airport in September. [Photo by Sun Lijun/For China Daily]
As the students pass through multipurpose tunnel section RDSG-4 wearing safety helmets, they are excited to stand inside the double-layered underground compound, a tangible and touchable place that will be a boost for this city of the future within a decade.
Not too far away, a kindergarten, primary school, middle school and hospital are beginning to take shape, as well as the Xiong'an high-speed railway station, which is said to have the ability to carry passengers to Beijing West Railway Station in 30 minutes and to Daxing Airport in 15 minutes.
Those with time can take in the famous view of Xiong'an Night-numerous crane towers decorated with colored lights. But the talented and versatile young people glimpsed the future during their visit to the Xiong'an urban-rural management service center.
There, sample rooms showing future living are displayed-designs for young people, couples with children and the elderly. In typical Xiong'an style, the electrical appliances and other household features are smart.
Here, the students felt the future-their future.
In 2035, when Xiong'an is ready, the students will be in middle age. Maybe then they will have a real headache-free life, with traffic jams, children's education woes and crowded hospitals left far behind.
Or perhaps they've already joined one of the college's graduates, Guo Xiaoke, whom they met during the trip. Guo graduated with a doctorate from the university, and quit the university career in Beijing to move with his family to Xiong'an. He has become one of the new area's builders.
