400,000 people to move to suburbs amid Beijing's administrative shift

BEIJING - Beijing will move many of its city administration offices out of the city center to the eastern suburb of Tongzhou, with "substantial progress" by 2017, the Beijing Municipal Commission of Urban Planning announced on Monday.

Building a new municipal subsidiary administrative center in Tongzhou, about 40 minutes drive from the city center, will draw approximately 400,000 urban residents from city center to the suburban district in the future, the commission said.

The move will help the capital ease urban problems, such as slowing the city's population growth and moving out some of Beijing's non-capital functions, according to the commission.

To accommodate Tongzhou District's new residents, the capital will improve public services such as medical care and education in the suburban district.

"For example, we will build better communal facilities, including top-grade hospitals and primary and middle schools, and more green spaces in Tongzhou than those in the urban districts so as to attract people to work and dwell in the suburb," said Wang Fei, deputy director of the commission.

Beijing will also upgrade roads between urban centers and Tongzhou to increase traffic flow, he said.

In addition to the city's administrative shift, the move is also expected to drive other functions such as tourist and commercial properties to move to the new administrative center.

The Chinese capital has sought to address its severe "urban diseases," such as traffic congestion and air pollution, by curbing its population growth and moving facilities to nearby regions.

The decision to build the new administrative center also serves as part of the capital's contribution to the national Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei integrated development plan.