Commuters forced to go the distance

Problem addressed

Ni Pengfei, director of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' Global Urban Competitiveness Research Center, said urbanization is an irreversible trend in China, and the core problems of urbanization are people's homes and jobs.

Ran Jiangyu, senior engineer at the China Academy of Urban Planning and Design, said some industrial cluster zones in big cities have led to a separation of home and work, as more people tend to live in high-quality residential communities, which are not typically situated in industrial areas.

Beijing, the city with the toughest commuting problem in China, has taken steps to address this situation in a number of respects.

In 2017, the capital published its general city plan for 2016 to 2035, with the authorities making clear that they aimed to move "non-capital functions" out of Beijing and solve "big city diseases".

In 2019, the Beijing municipal government moved its administrative offices to Tongzhou, bringing a large number of jobs and businesses to the area in an attempt to ease the population density in the capital's downtown area.

The Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei integrated development strategy aims to bring quality industrial, educational and medical resources from Beijing to surrounding areas－providing a better residential and working environment for people looking for new opportunities outside the capital.

Fang Xiaoyu, 32, a supermarket cashier in Langfang, used to be a saleswoman at a clothing store in Beijing's Daxing district. She spent 90 minutes traveling from home to work.

When her son started attending a primary school in Langfang last year, she decided to quit her job in Beijing to spend more time with him.

"I chose to find a new job near our home. It seems as though I have left Beijing, but I haven't," she said.

Fang now often takes her family to shopping malls, parks and museums in Beijing during weekends, and no longer spends a lot of her time driving to and from work. She is happy with her changed circumstances.

"No matter where you live, you have to embrace a real life," she said.