Building in Xiongan New Area on rise

Standing at his construction site in Xiongan New Area, Hebei province, Liu Qingyuan, an engineering manager at a major State-owned builder, looked around the well-planned buildings rising higher day by day. He was, he said, quite content.

He arrived in the region in October 2019 to take part in the construction work of China Railway No 4 Engineering Group Co Ltd, known as CREC4. The area was established by the central authorities on April 1, 2017.

The new area, which spans three counties — Xiongxian, Rongcheng and Anxin — is meant to relieve Beijing of functions that are not essential to its role as the nation's capital. It has been booming from the very start, Liu said.

CREC4 Fourth Engineering established its Xiongan regional branch in July 2022 to boost the construction of Xiongan.

"At busy times, we have some 500 construction workers at our site," Liu said, adding that the company's building projects in the new area have expanded to three, and he is happy to see the city rising as scheduled.

Unlike traditional urban development, Xiongan will consist of three sections to avoid overcrowding of resources and population in one central zone. There is a north, central and south area, Liu said. The area where building has started will serve as its city proper, covering 198 square kilometers.

According to the National Development and Reform Commission, the money invested in building Xiongan — dubbed "a strategy crucial for a millennium to come" — had reached 400 billion yuan ($57.4 billion) by Sept 20, 2022.

Meanwhile, builders from CREC4 Third Engineering have also helped build the Landscape and Small Municipal Works in Rongcheng, and the Ecological Corridor Project (Phase I) in Xiongan's startup area, said Chen Zihua, a CREC4 publicity official.

As Xiongan rises, rail links with other regions are also being expanded to boost its rapid development.

CREC4 Fourth Engineering is helping to build a high-speed railway known as the R1 line to link Xiongan with Beijing's Daxing International Airport. That line is expected to be operational by the end of 2023 or early 2024, Chen said.

Work has also started on a new section of a high-speed railway linking Xiongan with Shangqiu in Henan province, according to Han Xinliang, publicity chief of CREC4 First Engineering.

Han said the Xiongan-Shangqiu section, part of the Beijing-Xiongan-Shangqiu HSR running for 639 kilometers with 18 railway stations, is being built in part by his company and will extend for 552 km. A ceremony was held for the section's launch on Sept 29.

China plans to have eight high-speed rail corridors that will run north to south and eight corridors that will run east to west, according to China State Railway Group, under the management of the central government.