The top 10 stories of 2017

Xiongan New Area announced

By Zhang Yu

On April 1, China announced that Xiongan New Area would be established in North China's Hebei province to advance the coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei cluster.

The move will help to shift noncapital functions from Beijing, explore a new model of optimized development in densely populated areas and restructure the urban layout in the cluster.

Xiongan is another new area of national significance in the mold of the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone, Guangdong province, and Pudong New Area in Shanghai.

Located about 100 kilometers southwest of downtown Beijing, Xiongan will span three counties at the center of the triangle formed by Beijing, Tianjin and Shijiazhuang, the capital of Hebei. Initially, it will cover about 100 square kilometers, but will be expanded to 200 sq km in the mid-term and about 2,000 sq km in the long-term.

Work on the framework plan for developing Xiongan New Area has reached the final stages.

China aims to "develop forward-looking plans and adopt high standards for building Xiongan New Area", according to the report of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China.