In the years to come in order to mitigate the population pressure in downtown areas Beijing is going to build several new-style satellite towns with each to be designed for the living and working of half-million population.

While making projection report to the 2nd meeting of the 12th Beijing People's Congress Ding Xiangyang, director of Beijing Municipal Committee for Development and Reform, "prescribed" a cure to the "metropolis syndrome" which inflicts Beijing - the setup of new style towns.

Ding Xiangyang said Beijing is to steer the development of district education, culture, hygiene and commerce toward the formation of satellite towns and tone up the capacity for taking in social investments. Beijing will select several satellite towns with favorable locations, good industrial foundations and living environment, and with a high-standard programming decided through public bidding Beijing is to build several new-style towns of modern times inhabitable to half-million population. They will serve as important carriers to divert industries and population from the downtown areas and attract farmers into the city.

Beijing municipal government says, in this year's work report, Beijing has defined a new pattern for the layout of the city, which is summed up as "two axes - two zones - multi-centers". "Two Axes represent the cross axes formed by Beijing traditional middle axis and Chang'an Avenue, it's the essence of Beijing. "Two Zones" mean the "southern development zone" which starts from the north along Huairou and Miyun with Shunyi, Tongzhou and Yizhuang as key areas, and the "western ecological zone" which includes Yanqing, Changping, Liangxiang and Huangcun. "Multi-centers" refer to the construction of several comprehensive service districts in downtown areas including CBD, Olympic Park and Zhongguancun, and of several new towns in the areas covered both by the city and the Two Zones. The current satellite towns usually have a population of 100,000 as it is learned.

(People's Daily February 20, 2004)