Moving these factories to the city’s outskirts means less pollution in the populated areas, and the spaces they once occupied can be replanned to make better use of the land.

Huang Qian from the city’s Economic Committee explains that this is freeing up a significant area in the city proper.

“Within Beijing’s Fourth Ring road, factories used to take up nearly 9 percent of the land. As more factories are being moved out, this number is now decreasing. In three years, we expect to see over 9 million square meters of land become available for other uses.”

For historical reasons, the industrial layout of Beijing was not well planned. As the result, a lot of factories were located in the built up areas of the city. Moreover, Beijing has grown rapidly over the past few decades, and these factories stood in the way of an optimal land-use pattern. These old factories used out-of-date technology, wasted a lot of energy, and were a major source of the city's serious air pollution.

Huang Qian points out that the factories are not simply being relocated. At the same time they are being refitted with cleaner technologies, which will greatly reduce the air and water pollution they cause.

“Pollution caused by industry has been notably decreased. By the end of the year 2000, discharges of sulfur dioxide, smoke and dust had all seen substantial decreases.”

She adds that Beijing is planning to move 40 factories out this year, including some large state-owned enterprises, such as the Beijng Crane factory and Beijing Machine Tool factory. In three years, a new land use pattern will have taken shape that will make Beijing a more pleasant and convenient city to live in, and the air and water will be much cleaner.

( cri.com.cn July 24, 2002)