Beijing to relocate 5m to Hebei, Tianjin  

知情人称北京市要疏散500万人口到周边地区

日前，中国国际经济交流中心常务副理事长郑新立在受访时称，北京与河北已达成一项协议，北京将向周边疏散500万人。为重新规划北京，有学者提议在六环外设“畿辅新区”，范围涵盖北京大兴、天津武清、河北廊坊、固安等，可容纳超过500万人口。[查看全文]

(ECNS) -- Beijing is planning to relocate about 5 million residents to the neighboring Hebei province and Tianjin municipality, part of an urbanization plan to help solve its development dilemma, Xinhua magazine Economy and Nation Weekly reported.

Zheng Xinli, deputy head of the China Center for International Economic Exchanges, said Beijing and Hebei provincial governments have reached an agreement about the relocation.

In 2004, Beijing issued an overall development plan aimed at curbing the city's population to less than 18 million by 2020.

But Beijing's residential population has already hit 20.6 million by the end of 2012, with migrants from other provinces contributing to the rapid growth.

An official from the municipal government said before that 70 percent of the migrant population live in the urban fringe of Beijing.

The metropolis is in a development dilemma because of smog, traffic jams, strained resources and population growth.

The Beijing Municipal Commission of Urban Planning told the magazine on Jan 12 that the city government was considering modifying the overall development plan and formalizing the plan of building a greater Beijing area.

Wu Liangyong, a professor at Tsinghua University and member of both the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said coordinating with Tianjin and Hebei is the only way to cure its "urban diseases."

The vision of a Greater Beijing features a 200-square-kilometer new zone covering Daxing district of Beijing, Wuqing district of Tianjin, and Langfang city and Guan county of Hebei province, which can accommodate more than 5 million people.

Experts say construction of the city's latest airport will create an opportunity. But some warned that the delta in the north is different from the Pearl and Yangtze River deltas, as Beijing borders less-developed areas of Hebei.