Xiong'an devises blueprint for smart growth

A new city, Xiong'an New Area, is rising in the heart of China. While Xiong'an may seem like just another ambitious urban development project, it is something much more than that. It's a test-bed for futuristic city-building, a response to China's growing urban challenges, and a model for how smart planning can address the pressing issues facing cities worldwide.

Over the last eight years, under the leadership of President Xi Jinping, Xiong'an has evolved into an innovative experiment aimed at easing the pressure on Beijing. It's a city for the 21st century, designed not only to relieve Beijing of its non-capital functions but also to address deeper issues of urbanization, economic inequality, and administrative inefficiency. The lessons learned here will likely serve as a template for other countries grappling with similar urban and regional challenges.

Xiong'an's construction is not just about solving Beijing's overcrowding problem. The city's founders have a larger goal in mind: to create a new type of city, one that will be environmentally sustainable, technologically advanced, and socially inclusive. Based on this vision, the city is tackling some of the most common yet complex issues facing expanding cities around the world, including pollution, inefficient infrastructure, and the growing gap between developed and underdeveloped areas.