Cities 31 (2013) 491–506

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Cities

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City profile

Beijing

Zhenshan Yang a,⇑, Jianming Cai a, Henk F.L. Ottens b, Richard Sliuzas c

a Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 11A Datun Road, Anwai, Chaoyao District, Beijing 100101, ChinabDepartment of Human Geography & Urban and Regional Planning, Utrecht University (UU), Waldeck Pyrmontkade 9, 3583 TW Utrecht, The Netherlandsc Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation, Twente University (UT), Hengelostraat 99, P.O. Box 6, 7500 AA Enschede, The Netherlands

a r t i c l e i n f o

Article history:Received 16 November 2010Received in revised form 24 June 2011Accepted 27 July 2011Available online 30 August 2011

Keywords:Urban dynamicsEconomic and spatial developmentInstitutional transformationWorld cityEconomic clusters

0264-2751/$ - see front matter Crown Copyright � 2doi:10.1016/j.cities.2011.07.007

⇑ Corresponding author at: Institute of GeograpResources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 11ADistrict, Beijing 100101, China. Tel.: +86 10 64889035

E-mail addresses: yangzspat@gmail.com, yangzs@igsnrr.ac.cn (J. Cai), h.ottens@geo.uu.nl (H.F.L. Ottens)

a b s t r a c t

Although the scale and speed of China’s urban and economic transition is well acknowledged, a detailedaccount of the transformation of a single city’s development in this context is quite rare. This paper pro-vides an insight into the recent dynamics of China’s capital city, Beijing. In the early 1980s, China’s tran-sition process from a planned to a market economy started to deeply affect the urban economy of Beijing,so much so that the city is on its way to become one of the world’s leading cities. This article focuses onthis development by looking at Beijing’s institutional context and its economic-spatial dynamics over thepast 30 years. Economic Clusters (ECs) are also discussed because they have contributed significantly toBeijing’s rapid growth and change. The city’s development is however under increasing pressures of eco-logical deterioration, limited water resources, high living costs and uncertainties regarding the futureurban policy orientation of the city region. These current challenges and responses in planning areassessed and discussed.

Crown Copyright � 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Introduction

Beijing, the capital of China with over 3000 years’ history of civ-ilisation (Hou, 1962), is well known for its historical and culturalrichness. Such a long urban tradition has created plentiful culturaland architectural heritages (Fig. 1), for example the Forbidden City,various great temples, government buildings and traditional hous-ing areas recognised as Hutongs. Beijing is also home to contempo-rary Chinese culture. It has the largest number of universities,academic institutes and college students of all Chinese cities. Sev-eral are leading in the world, such as Peking and Tsinghua Univer-sities and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. These institutionsmake Beijing a key knowledge centre within China and act as agateway to the world. It is therefore not surprising that Beijingplays a decisive role in Chinese politics and culture. Moreover,the hosting of 2008 Olympic Games has clearly marked its growingimportance and emergence as a world city.

The city is however not just rich in history and culture. It is thesecond largest city in China and ranks in the first tier of Chinese cit-ies in terms of economic development and urban construction, onpar with Shanghai. Although the municipal government enjoys ahigh autonomous power in policy and management, the nationalgovernment still has a crucial role to play in the development of

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hical Sciences and NaturalDatun Road, Anwai, Chaoyao; fax: +86 10 64889279.igsnrr.ac.cn (Z. Yang), caijm@, sliuzas@itc.nl (R. Sliuzas).

the city region, particular regarding its main urban functions andstructures.

The municipality covers 16,410 km2 and is composed of 16urban districts and 2 counties. In 2010, four downtown urbandistricts within the 2nd ring road were reorganised into two newdistricts because of their small spatial size and population(Fig. 2). The basic urban structure is shaped by circular freeways:starting from the 2nd ring road, and expanding to the 6th ring roadthat connects town centres of outer-urban districts. In terms ofeconomic activities, landscape and lifestyle, the 4th ring road couldbe roughly regarded as the boundary between the urban built-upand the peri-urban areas of the municipality. The urbanised terri-tory however dramatically expanded alongside the 5th ring road,firstly in the northern direction during 1990s with the completionof several major projects including Zhongguancun Science Park(ZSP), the Asian Games Zone and the Olympic Games Park. After2009, this expansion trend was also witnessed in the south withsubstantial construction along the southern stretch of this ringroad.

The total municipal population increased from 9million in 1980to 19.6 million in 2010, of which 86% is classified as urban popula-tion, according to the latest 6th census (Beijing Statistic Bureau,2011). Besides, Beijing has also accommodated over 6 million mi-grants during the period, who came to the city for better economicopportunities and other possible welfare. The high urbanisationrate and the large numbers of migrants have propelled economicand spatial developments but also created many challenges forurban policies.

ights reserved.

Fig. 1. Beijing: historical and cultural richness.

Fig. 2. Basic spatial structure of Beijing.

492 Z. Yang et al. / Cities 31 (2013) 491–506

Pre-reform and transformation

The socialist ideology, established in 1949, had a great impacton Beijing’s development. As a country with a fragile and very

weak socio-economic foundation, the new socialist state was eagerto achieve fast economic growth with a prime focus on industriali-sation. As the capital of the new China, Beijing urban function wasalso planned to transfer from a consumption city into a production

(1) Pre-reform Streamline, command style

-

Economic (strategic) plan

Urban (spatial) planHousehold registration

system

Housing and spatial distribution of population

Work units

Land use

Transportation

Land market

Property market

Distribution of people

Land use Transportation

Institutional building

Market mechanism

Institutional building

Interactive style(2) Market economy

Transform

Econ

omic

dev

elop

men

t Spatial development

Fig. 3. Institutional transformation of urban development.

1 In 2006, land for industrial use was also officially obtained via a bidding processin the market.

Z. Yang et al. / Cities 31 (2013) 491–506 493

city. It thus obtained strong support from the central government(accounting for half of the fixed investment in Beijing) for itsindustrial development (Gu, Chan, et al., 2006), taking over partof the comparative advantages of Tianjin, the second most impor-tant city in North China. Some (super-) large State-Owned Enter-prises (SOEs) were accordingly established, several with nationalsignificance. For instance, the Shougang Group (Capital Iron andSteel Company) and the Yanshan Petrochemical Company eachhad over 100,000 employees. As a result, by the late 1950s, the cityhad become an important economic centre in China with heavyindustries as its main pillar.

The socialist ideology was also reflected in the spatial organisa-tion of the city. Tiananmen Square, right in the centre of the citycrossed by Chang’an street, dubbed as the first ‘street’ in the nation,symbolises the realisation of the socialist state. It contrastsstrongly with the massive historic architectural heritage from theMing and Qing Dynasties such as the Forbidden City and JingshanPark, and became the civic centre of China. Surrounding the squareand extending to the 2nd ring road, numerous central governmentdepartments and municipal official buildings are located. In the ur-ban centre, two shopping areas, respectively named as Dongdan-Wangfujing and Xidan located to the east and west of TiananmenSquare, became famous destinations for citizens and national visi-tors in the socialist period.

Reflecting the rapid industrialisation policy, many manufactur-ing plants were established in and around the urban centre. Bei-jing’s new spatial organisation was mainly based on theallocation and reallocation of heavy industries. In the 1970s, manyof these industries expanded, including machinery, petrochemicaland textile manufacturing. By the early 1980s, 61% of manufactur-ing activities with 75% of Beijing’s employment were concentratedin inner urban areas (Liu, 2004). The organisation of heavy indus-tries, housing and basic residential facilities was mainly based onlocalised units (the Danwei system), which formed the origin forthe currently still dominant mono-centric spatial pattern. By con-trast, nearly half of the development projects proposed for theplanned new key towns were never carried out, partly due to theCultural Revolution. As a result, the goal of developing new manu-facturing and residential areas in outer urban areas was not rea-lised until much later (Beijing Municipal Commission of UrbanPlanning, Research Institute of Beijing City Planning et al., 2007).

The sketched development was very much a linear process,where leading economic plans were usually subsequently and rel-atively independently worked out in land use plans and buildingprojects (Fig. 3). This mechanism was greatly facilitated by the

population control exercised via the Hukou (Household Registra-tion) System (HRS), which requires not only official approval forthe relocation of all individuals, including a rural household to beregistered as an urban household, but also for inter-city migration.Such migration permissions were usually granted when workerswere hired by State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs). The growth of theurban population was therefore largely determined by industriali-sation and strictly controlled Hukou (Lu, 2003; Gu, Chan, et al.,2006). The HRS played a positive role in ensuring economic recov-ery from World War II and to quickly realise new industrial pro-duction and employment. Due to the lack of a functioning landmarket spatial development was based on the concept of produc-tive territorial complexes, to create manufacturing zones withwork units (Danwei) attached, and to locate work and living placesadjacent to one another (Gaubatz, 1999).

This situation continued until the 1980s, when a market econ-omy was gradually introduced. In order to facilitate market mech-anisms, several key reforms or adaptations were implemented,including: (1) The HRS was gradually relaxed by officially allowingcollege graduates and technicians to migrate into the city, and bytacitly accepting the surplus rural labourers to flow into urbanareas with some conditions, as a consequence of which large scalemigration has become the main cause of the very rapid populationgrowth of Beijing. (2) The establishment of an urban land market inthe early 1980s changed the situation where land use and buildinginvestments were entirely controlled by governments. Particularlyafter 1991, taxation on land use became a major measure to reformthe land use system, which promoted urban construction andspurred economic development. Nowadays all land should betransacted in an open bidding process in the market.1 (3) The estab-lishment of the property market changed the rationale behind theworking-unit areas and the practise of housing provision leadingto the commercialisation of housing in the city (Wang & Murie,1996). After the mid-1990s, the real estate industry became one ofthe most dynamic sectors.

The changes described above were essential for facilitatingthe operation of a market economy. This is true for other Chinesecities, but more salient in Beijing due to its status as the nationalcapital. The institutional reforms changed city development froma sequential linear to an interactive process involving morestakeholders. Land, property and demographics are now at the coreof the interactions between economic activities and spatial

70%

80%

90%

100%

P

Public Organisations

Culture, Sports & EntertainmentHealth Care & Social WelfareEducation

Household Services

Water, Environment & Public ServicesSciences and Technology

494 Z. Yang et al. / Cities 31 (2013) 491–506

arrangements (Fig. 3). The relaxation of the HRS and the establish-ment of land and property markets unleashed the mobility of peo-ple, land, technology and capital necessary for expanding themarket economy and for creating tremendous opportunities fordevelopment. However, the new mechanisms and the rapidgrowth have also led to major problems and big challenges for ur-ban polices; diversifying fiscal revenues, reducing housing marketspeculation and further relaxation of the HRS are the most pressingones.

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

2000 2005 2009

Shar

e of

GD Services

Business Services

Real Estate

Finance & Insurance

Accomodation & Food servicesWholesale & Retail

ICT services

Transportation & CommunicationConstruction

Manufacturing

Primary Industry

0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

2000 2005 2009

GD

P, R

MB

Bill

ion

Public Organisations

Culture, Sports & EntertainmentHealth Care & Social WelfareEducation

Household Services

Water, Environment & Public ServicesSciences and Technology ServicesBusiness Services

Real Estate

Finance & Insurance

Accomodation & Food servicesWholesale & Retail

ICT services

Transportation & CommunicationConstruction

Manufacturing

Primary Industry

Fig. 4. Share of GDP in Beijing in 2000, 2005 and 2009. Data source: Beijing StatisticYear Book 2001, 2006 and 2010.

Urban economic and spatial dynamics

The institutional reforms and the emerging market-drivendevelopment evoked new directions of change in the city’s eco-nomic and spatial landscapes. These dynamics are documentedand described in the following section based on major indicators.

Economic dynamics

Since the establishment of a market economy, Beijing has expe-rienced an extraordinary economic growth, with Gross DomesticProduct (GDP) reaching RMB 1215 billion in 2009, at an averageannual growth rate of 18% during 1990–2009. GDP per capita ex-ceeded US$ 3000 in 2000 and quickly reached US$ 5000 in 2005.Currently this figure is over US$ 10,000, conferring Beijing the sta-tus of a middle-income city in global terms.

Since the mid-1990s, services had become the dominant eco-nomic sector both in output and employment. After 1995, almostall major service industries increased in importance. During2005–2009, the most significant growth was in wholesale and re-tail, real estate, business services, science and technology services,all with an annual growth rate between 21% and 24%. Finance andinsurance grew at 18% and ICT services at 16%. Although the shareof manufacturing in total GDP was still 19% in 2009, its yearlygrowth rate was only 8% during 2005–2009 (Fig. 4). Health careis also well developed in Beijing with many highly reputed hospi-tals and the whole social welfare sector accounts for 16% of the to-tal GDP. Although high-end financial services are hidden within thebroad business services category, its importance is clear as Beijingcompetes with Shanghai in this area. Beijing’s role is primarily inmanagement, while Shanghai concentrates on marketing, servicesand sales.2

The most important economic development is the privatisationprocess. This can be seen in the changes in the ownership status ofeconomic activities, in terms of employment and investment. Theemployment structure shows that private domestic and foreigncompanies provide a large proportion of total employment(Fig. 5). As seen from Table 1, the share of investments in fixed as-sets that comes from the private sector is at a high level: 64% dur-ing 2001–2005 and 61% during 2006–2009 respectively. Given thefact that total investment in fixed assets strongly increased after2000, Beijing’s economic restructuring is indeed dramatic in termsof ownership.

On the other hand, the government is still the major owner andcontroller of social and public services. As indicated in Table 2, thegovernment extracts more and more fiscal revenues from the econ-omy. Since the 1990s, the increase of fiscal revenues is higher thanthat of GDP (i.e. the elasticity coefficient is greater than 1). Differ-ent levels of Government still play an important role in land provi-sion, resource allocation and by regulating large projects (Ma,2002). Local government investments concentrate in public goods

2 Of the Chinese banks appearing in the 2010 Fortune Global 500 list , theheadquarters of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China Construction Bank,Agricultural Bank of China and Bank of China are all in Beijing, while only theheadquarter of Communications Bank of China is in Shanghai.

and services such as schools, hospitals and infrastructure. It istherefore crucial that public and private investments are well coor-dinated in city development and management.

Another crucial driving force is Foreign Direct Investment (FDI)that has substantially accelerated Beijing’s economic growth. In theperiod of 1980–1987, when Beijing started to promote overseestrading, only six FDI-based projects were approved. After a some-what cautious start, perhaps attributable to concerns about so-cio-political stability after 1989, FDI grew rapidly at 15% annuallyin 2005–2009 and in 2009 exceeded US$ 6 billion. Foreign invest-ments bring capital, technology, know-how, jobs and exports tothe city (Geiger, 2002) and they give a strong incentive to localeconomies to establish and enhance linkages with the world

70%

29%

22%

13%

4%

3%

6%

28%

33%

8%

11%

13%

5%

28%

29%

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

1998

2005

2009

State-owned Collectives Domestic private Foreign Individual private

Fig. 5. Employment by ownership.

Table 1Public and private investments on fixed assets. Source of data: Beijing Statistic YearBook 2010.

Total(RMB,billion)

Public(RMB,billion)

Private(RMB,billion)

Publicshare (%)

Privateshare (%)

1981–1985 28.7 22.4 6.3 78 221986–1990 72.4 61.0 11.5 84 161991–1995 235.9 176.4 59.5 75 251996–2000 546.2 338.1 208.1 62 382001–2005 1085.7 392.2 693.5 36 642006–2009 1604.5 625.6 978.9 39 61

Table 2Increase of fiscal revenue, 1978–2009. Data source: Beijing Statistic Year Book, 1998,2003, 2008 and 2010; Beijing 50 years: 1949–1998.

Fiscal revenue,RMB billion

% of GDP Increasecoefficientsa

1981–1985 23 25 0.61986–1990 34 17 0.71991–1995 46 9 0.61996–2000 135 11 1.52001–2005 361 14 1.12006–2009 808 20 1.5

a Elasticity coefficients equal the relative growth rate of fiscal revenue comparedto that of GDP.

Z. Yang et al. / Cities 31 (2013) 491–506 495

economy. Most FDI has been directed to business services, ICTindustries, and high-end manufacturing.

3 Beijing Subway, available at http://www.bjsubway.com/cns/index.html, lastaccessed on 3 April 2009.

4 This figure was surveyed on Aug 15, 2008, see http://www.china.com.cn/info/txt/2008-08/17/content_16248941.htm.

Spatial dynamics

Beijing has a high-density urban core with over 22,800 persons/km2 in 2009, however, this is lower than the 28,360 persons/km2 in1992. Over the same period the population density increased inmost other parts of the city. In 2009, half of the population livedin the inner urban areas (about 8.7 million), at a density of only6800 persons/km2 though still substantially higher than the 930persons/km2 in the outer-urban areas and to only 250 persons/km2 in the ex-urban part of the municipality.

Beijing is also an immigration city, with an estimated 4.8 mil-lion migrants, most of whom live in the inner urban area (Fig. 6).However, during 1992–2009, the number of migrants grew sub-stantially in most outer-urban districts. Particularly, the Beijing–Tianjin Corridor is now a magnet for migrants. Clearly, migrationis still important, but its scale and nature has substantially changed

over time. With urban construction slowing down and a transitionto high-tech industrial development, both quantitative and quali-tative changes in migration patterns occur.

Demographic growth was accompanied by the building of sev-eral huge residential clusters in the outer-urban areas. They startedfrom the 4th ring road but have now also reached the 5th ring road(Fig. 7). Each of these clusters has 200–300 thousand inhabitants,generating large new traffic flows that cause much congestion onthe road and metro networks. However, with the continuing pop-ulation increase, there is a still large demand for housing. Land andhousing speculation is another factor that pushes urban expansion.Newly planned residential clusters are even larger than the re-cently completed ones, and will probably aggravate the transporta-tion problems. Another aspect is that different population groupstend to congregate in different parts of the city. This leads to amore segregated and polarised social-spatial structure at a largergeographical scale (Feng, Wu, & Logan, 2008). A current concernfor the city is the emergence of urban poverty, particularly whenit gives rise to large, low-income clusters of marginalization (Zhang& Pei, 2007).

The city’s ring road system plays a crucial role in automobiletransportation. Construction of the 2nd ring road, circling the tra-ditional urban core, started in 1987 and was completed by 1992.A freeway with 10 flyovers was constructed to alleviate the trans-portation pressure and it was the first real limited-access motor-way in China. In the following years several new rings wereadded: the 3rd ring road was finished in 1994, connecting the innerurban districts (Zhang, 2001). The 4th ring road that was com-pleted in 2001 was intended to become the dividing line betweenurban and rural areas. The 5th ring road was opened in 2003 toconnect the key sub-centres in the outer urban areas. Most re-cently, the 6th ring road was added to link the main central townsof the outer urban districts (Fig. 8).

Next to the ring roads, an integrated rail system provides themeans to travel in the city. Beijing started its metro system in1965, when Metro line 1, along Chang’an Street, was constructedand opened in 1969 with 23.6 km length at that moment. Metroline 2 opened in 1984 almost ‘under-lapping’ the 2nd ring road.In the later years, until 2007, the metro system was extendedslowly with in total 42 km or 1.3 km built per year. Particularlyduring 1987–97, only 1.8 kmwas opened for the Metro line 1, fromFuxingmen to Xidan (Zhang, 2001). New lines were opened in 2002and 2003 when Metro line 13 and part of Metro line 6 were com-pleted. Metro line 13, part of which is a Light Rail Transit (LR), linksthe two biggest transport nodes, Dongzhimen and Xizhimen, withHuilongguan, a recently built affordable high density residentialarea, and Wangjing, a new huge complex of businesses and resi-dential areas. By 2005, the metro system’s length was 114 km.3

The 2008 Olympic Games provided an extra impetus for theconstruction of three new lines: Metro lines 5, 10 and 8 (Fig. 9):line 8 offers a link to the main stadiums of the Olympic Games; line10 plays a role in reducing traffic on the 3rd ring road; line 5 con-nects the existing large residential areas Tiantongyuan (anotheraffordable residential area in Northern Beijing) and Songjiazhuang,each with over 500,000 residents. In addition, the capital airportwas connected by L1 (LR) to Dongzhimen, a transport node forthe eastern part of the inner city. By 2008, the total length of themetro system (including LR) amounted to 220 km. The metro car-ries around 1.3 billion passengers yearly, with a daily peak of 4 mil-lion passenger-trips.4 An indication of the demand is that within its

Fig. 6. Distribution and growth of migrants in Beijing. (a) Migrants distribution 2009. (b) Migrants growth 1992–2009. Data sources: Beijing Statistic Year Book, 1993, 2006and 2010.

496 Z. Yang et al. / Cities 31 (2013) 491–506

first 27 h of operation, Metro line 5 itself carried 706,000 passenger-trips.5 In 2009, Metro 4 was open to incorporate Zhongguancun Sci-ence Park (ZSP) into the network. In 2010, Metro lines 4 and 9, andL2 were extended or opened to key towns of outer-urban and exur-ban districts including Daxing, Fangshan and Yizhuang (a former na-tional level Economic Development Zone which will be a new townin the near future), in particular to support the development of thesouthern part of the municipality. Metro line 15 and suburban lineS2 were opened to connect Shunyi and Changping in northernBeijing.

New metro lines are still under construction. According to thecurrent plan, by the end of 2012, Metro lines 6, 7, 8, 10, 14, 15

5 This was survey was conducted during 14–23 h on 7 October 2007 and 5–23 h on8 October 2007, see http://news.xinhuanet.com/newscenter/2007-10/10/con-tent_6855037.htm.

and regional railway line 1 (phase 2) will be completed and thesystem will have a length of 407 km. By 2015, all lines of the railsystem are expected to be 561 km in length. The final decisionon this plan is however pending, as some aspects are under reviewfor financial, technical and implementation feasibility. With thedevelopment of the metro system, it is forecast that by 2015, over60% of the 45 million daily trips in the city will be made by publictransport, of which about 40% will use the rail systems.6

In this light it should be noted that accessibility to metro sta-tions has become a main factor for determining housing prices.Fast construction of metro lines has so far reduced price gradientsof housing within the 5th ring road. Further development of the

6 According to the speech by the director of Beijing Municipal Transport ResearchCenter, available at ‘Web of China (http://www.china.com.cn/news/env/2011-01/24/content_21804494.htm)’.

Fig. 7. Main new and planned residential clusters in Beijing. Note: the boundaries of the clusters are indicative.

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metro network in the coming years is expected to both increase thehousing price near the new nodes, such as Yizhuang new town, anddecrease the price variation within the urbanised area as a whole.

7 From the speech of the Director of Beijing Municipal Commission of UrbanPlanning at the symposium of The Development and Plan of Beijing Metro System onJuly 22, 2008.

Economic Clusters: major drivers of economic and spatialchange

During the period of major transformations discussed above,Economic Clusters (ECs) have gradually become important driversof growth and change (Wang &Wang, 1998) and this is expected tocontinue in the future. Therefore, ECs deserve special attention tobetter understand the urban dynamics of Beijing. EC-induceddevelopment has two key characteristics. First, the urban-eco-nomic functions become gradually specialised in specific industriesand, second, economic activities become increasingly concentratedin distinct geographical areas. In addition to being part of joint andinterrelated economic-spatial changes, ECs are also subject to astrong interplay of government planning and free market develop-ment. Firms are attracted by main infrastructure, taxation andother financial incentives and supported by land provision that isthe domain of government policy and action.

The development of ECs in Beijing has traits of socialist plan-ning. The Soviet concept of productive territorial complexes, usu-ally attached with residential facilities and basic provisions forworkers, was employed to organise the production spaces in thecity in the pre-reform time. With the introduction of free marketconditions the concept of productive territorial complexes wasabandoned and the direct geographical link between work andhousing was lost. Currently, ECs very much focus on the economicside of their existence and, to some extent, follow the example of‘Silicon Valley’ by strengthening social networks and industry-

university synergies (Wang & Wang, 1998). Special taxation poli-cies and various other financial incentives are also employed to at-tract firms to the designated parks with planned land regulationand favourable land rents.

As Fig. 10 illustrates, the city centre, within and around the 2ndring road, is the main civic centre of China, where China’s nationalGovernment, ministries and the People’s Congress are located.Many of Beijing’s municipal government offices are also found inthis area. Together with historical sites, the national and municipalgovernments occupy nearly 90% of the land within the 2nd ringroad.7 This part of the city is also well-known for its Chinese culturalheritage such as the Forbidden City. Beyond these civic and culturalclusters, starting from the 3rd ring road, the rapid and vast develop-ments of the recent decades have taken place, led by new businessactivities in manufacturing and services.

The leading industries include: ICT, high-tech manufacturing,bio-pharmaceuticals, automobiles and logistics (AL), culture andinformation (CI), and education and sciences (ES). These functionalclusters are also clustered in geographical space (Fig. 10).

In practice, Zhongguancun Science Park (ZSP) is the first Chinesenational high-tech business park. It was established in 1988, withits main seat in the Haidian District, which is known for its ITretailing. ZSP was developed via systematic upgrading from ITretailing to IT manufacturing, adding research and developmenton electronics and software, and diversification towards differenttypes of information and communication products. In this process,local Chinese companies played a fundamental role, including

Fig. 8. Road system inner Beijing. Source: Based on Beijing master urban plan 2006–2020.

Fig. 9. Metro system in Beijing, present and planned for 2015. Data source: Based on the map of Beijing Subway at http://www.bjsubway.com/cns/dtfz/index.html, lastaccessed on 20 June 2011.

498 Z. Yang et al. / Cities 31 (2013) 491–506

Fig. 10. Industrial and business parks. Note: The map is based on the plan of industrial parks of Zhongguancun Science Park (ZSP), provided by the ZSP Administration(retrievable at http://www.zgc.gov.cn/fwpt/trzfw/hgjj/), the plan of Tianzhu Logistic Park, the plan of Beijing CBD (courtesy of Beijing CBD Administrative Committee), andour local knowledge. Except for BDA and Tianzhu Park, all industrial parks on the map belong to ZSP.

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university spin-off firms like Lenovo, Tsinghua Ziguang and Foun-der, which benefited from the synergy realised in enterprise-uni-versity cooperation. In the late 1990s, many of the leadingelectronics firms in the world have established plants in ZSP,including IBM, Hewlett–Packard, Dell, Microsoft, Lucent, Motorola,Intel, General Motors, Panasonic, and SUN. Although ZSP’s initialdevelopment was very much based on unleashed market forces,it was later heavily stimulated and controlled by the government.By 2003, the amazing number of 470 business parks with varioussizes had been built all over the city. After a stricter regulationand organisational consolidation of the industrial developmentby the national and Beijing governments, the number of industrialparks has been now reduced to 19. Three parks have a national sta-tus including ZSP (high-tech), Beijing Yizhuang Economic Develop-ment Zone (BYEDZ primarily for high-end manufacturing andTianzhu (logistics and automobile manufacturing).

Besides these manufacturing parks, there are two importanthigh-end service areas. One is the Financial Street along the West2nd Ring Road, where main banks and other financial services

are located, and the other is the new CBD in the Chaoyang districteastward adjacent to the East 3rd Ring Road (separated from thetraditional CBD around the Wangfujing area). The CBD is a rela-tively new cluster compared to the Financial Street but it is grow-ing rapidly as a major concentration of various high-end andglobal-oriented business services and supporting activities.

The industrial parks mentioned are still the key engines for Bei-jing’s urban-economic growth and transition. As shown in Table 3,these parks are very important for the municipality in terms of ma-jor economic indicators, and have grown at an amazing rate during2004–2009. These figures also illustrate the main role of ECs inattracting foreign investment.

Those business parks characterised by a tertiary sector profile,develop even stronger than the manufacturing parks, a clear signthat Beijing is primarily becoming a service oriented economy.Unfortunately, a time series with comparable statistics about ser-vice clusters is lacking. The available statistics are shown in Table4, but the definitions employed have changed over time. Neverthe-less it is clear that the total assets of the new CBD and the Financial

Table 3Basic facts of industrial parks in Beijing, 2004, 2009. Data source: 1. Duan, Hongwei (2008). Analysis of economic performance of ZSP in 2007. Department of industrial promotionof ZSP administration (Presentation). 24 Jan 2008. (科技园区2007年经济形势分析,中关村管委会产业发展促进处 段宏伟, 2008, 1月-24) 2. Beijing Statistic Year Book 2005, 2010.

2004 2009 Annual increase rate (%)

Industrialparks

Themunicipality

As % of themunicipality

Industrialparks

Themunicipality

As % of themunicipality

Accumulated project investment (RMB, billion) 397.4 NA 717.3 NA 13Incremental fixed assets investment (RMB, billion) 10.3 252.8 4 24.8 129.7 19 19Accumulated FDI (US$, billion) 6.8 27.9 24 16.1 49.3 33 19Industrial output value (RMB, billion)a 270.8 595.2 45 512.8 1130.2 45 14Revenue (RMB, billion) 570.3 NA 1149.5 NA 15Tax (RMB, billion) 22.6 72.7 31 71.3 143.7 50 26Total profit (RMB, billion) 32.5 123.2 31Employment (,000 persons) 834.0 2328 36 1051.0 2254 47 5

a Employment in secondary industry and the figure is in 2006.

Table 4Basic facts of main business parks in Beijing, 2004, 2008. Data source: Beijing Regional Statistics, 2005 and 2009.

2004 2008

CBD Financial street district Total CBD Financial street district Total

Assets (RMB, billion) 266.4 2611.7 2878.1 717.0 20613.21 21330.2Revenue (RMB, billion) 86.4 134.0 220.4 236.5 1384.2 1620.8Employment (persons) 42,305 50,123 92,428 166,777 212,804 379,581% of tertiary employment of the municipal – – – 23 30 53

NB statistics of 2004 and 2008 are only limitedly comparable due to definition changes.

Table 5Spatial developments of industrial and business parks. Data source: Beijing RegionalStatistics, 2006 and 2010.

2005 2009 Increase (%)

Industrial parksDesignated (km2) 204.5 363.3 78Implemented (km2) 108.7 193.4 78Completed (km2) 88.5 151.3 71

Business parksLand area (ha) of CBD 399 399Land area (ha) of Financial street 103 103

500 Z. Yang et al. / Cities 31 (2013) 491–506

Street area have accumulated to RMB 21,330 billion in 2008, an an-nual increase with double digits during the period of 2004–2008.Employment has grown at an even higher rate. In 2008 53% of allemployment in the tertiary sector in Beijing was concentrated inthe new CBD and the Financial Street area, a very high percentagefor any megacity.

The spatial-economic organisation of these major businessparks has strongly influenced both the physical and the socialstructure of the city. The recent shifts towards high-end manufac-turing and services are again major restructuring factors for cur-rent and future urban dynamics (Table 5). An area of about363 km2 was allocated for the industrial parks in strategic plansin 2009, an increase of almost 78% compared with 2005, due toexpansion of existing parks and the newly added parks such asbio-pharmaceutical industrial complex in Daxing, while the newCBD with almost 399 ha and the Financial Street area are the mainconcentrations for modern services.

With an increased interest in cultural activities and the creationof the Olympic Park (Zhang & Zhao, 2009), tourism and cultureclusters have become more important. According to comparativeand competitive advantages, these clusters are expected to be dy-namic drivers of creative industries development in Beijing in fu-ture. They should stimulate commercial innovation, transform itseconomies and contribute to Beijing’s aspiration for a world citystatus (Wei & Yu, 2006).

Vision, challenges and policy responses

Since the 1980s, Beijing has experienced a vibrant transition inits urban spatial economy. However, this transition process has notyet ended and more challenges need to be faced. In order to sustaina successful growth and transition, some resilient urban planningand policies should be adopted considering its development vision,population growth and water and land constrains, discussedbelow.

Vision

The city grew dramatically fast after the mid-1990s with severaleye catching projects constructed, including the Asian Games Zone(designated in 1992) and ZSP (Fig. 11). These projects are mainly atcity edge locations, causing employment and housing to move outfrom the urban centre to outer and peri-urban areas, stimulatingthe continuous physical urban expansion. On the other hand, withthe construction and growth of ECs, Beijing is gradually becomingan economic hub in China and the world with an influx of domesticand foreign investments. Particularly, the 2008 Olympic Gameshave induced a major improvement of the infrastructure of thecity. All these developments support Beijing’s aspirations to be-come a genuine world city, a goal that is rather modestly targetedfor 2050.

The scenario of being a world city is strongly supported by Bei-jing’s vibrant urban economy, especially the growth of high-end,knowledge based services in finance, business, technology innova-tion, education, research and development. Nevertheless, modernmanufacturing grows dramatically too, especially in ICT, automo-bile and pharmaceuticals, which already makes Beijing a highlycompetitive global centre for hi-tech industries. Some of the Chi-nese corporations in the city are also encouraged to invest in othercountries to extend their worldwide operations; examples are theIndustrial and Commercial Bank of China, and Lenovo (ICT).

The goal of being a world city is also facilitated by the promo-tion of cultural and social activities particularly since the 2008

Z. Yang et al. / Cities 31 (2013) 491–506 501

Olympic Games. The aim is to create a new image of Beijing in theworld, based on a balanced synergy of culture, technology and eco-nomic development. The Olympic park occupies an area of1085 ha, of which 680 ha is reserved for the forest park and405 ha for sports stadiums and related facilities. Since the OlympicGames, the redevelopment of the park was initiated, but the finalfunction and lay-out has not yet been decided.

With the increasing significance of cultural development, thecity gradually pays more attention to the historical conservationand urban redevelopment. In 2000, the Shichahai redevelopmentscheme gained government support to preserve some of theremaining traditional alleys/Hutongs. Some were built during theYuan dynasty and have lasted for nearly 10 centuries. The gentri-fied Shichahai area has become one of most popular entertainmentareas in Beijing, on par with the Sanlitun area, where most foreignembassies are concentrated. In 2003 and 2005, the traditionalshopping street, Dashila, was redeveloped to restore ancient archi-

Fig. 11. Urban dyna

Fig. 12. Redevelopment of historical areas (Yangmeixie

tecture. In the past 10 years, urban redevelopment and gentrifica-tion have become major drivers for development, mostly in thesouth of the urban centre. Fig. 12 shows one of redevelopmentschemes proposed in the 12th 5-year plan, in addition to the ongo-ing Dashila project. As Hutong preservation often goes hand inhand with gentrification, authorities have becoming increasinglyconcerned with the impact of such projects on the former resi-dents, often relatively poor, who found relatively cheap and welllocated housing there.

To effectively accommodate these developments, recently Bei-jing took a measure to merge its 4 traditional urban districts (Den-gcheng, Xicheng, Chongwen and Xuanwu) into 2 (Dongcheng andXicheng) within the 2nd ring road. This may leave more flexibilityto efficiently re-organise its high-end services. For example, Desh-eng Park is planned to be expanded to accommodate the smallerfinancial firms that support the main firms located on FinancialStreet. On the other hand, it is also expected that the Financial

mics of Beijing.

jie and Dashila), photographed on March 19, 2011.

Fig. 13. Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei (BTH) extended metropolitan region. Source: Based on the Beijing EMR map in Beijing master urban plan 2006–2020.

502 Z. Yang et al. / Cities 31 (2013) 491–506

Street could positively influence the new economic focal areas suchas Guang’an industrial park that belonged to the old XuanwuDistrict.

Another great effort to support the world city vision is the con-cept of the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei (BTH) Extended MetropolitanRegion (EMR), which is composed of two core cities: Beijing andTianjin, and several other main cities in Hebei Province including:Langfang, Baoding, Shijiazhuang Qinghuangtao and Cangzhoualong the Bohai Rim (Fig. 13). With a hinterland of 40 million peo-ple and an area of 185,000 km2, BTH EMR is the third largest ex-tended metropolitan region in China, after the Yangtze RiverDelta (YRD, Shanghai–Nanjing–Hangzhou) and Pearl River Delta(PRD, Guangzhou–Shenzhen). BTH EMR aims to create a new geo-graphical context for the city’s development, which will improvethe competitiveness of the region in the global economy. Examplesof recent projects at this Greater Beijing scale are the relocation ofthe Shougang Group from Beijing to Caofeidian, and the upgradingof the seaport of Tianjin and its hinterland connections. Currentlythe improvement of regional transportation systems, particularlythe Beijing–Tianjin inter-city high speed railway, with its traveltime of only 29 min, has already strengthened the integrationwithin this regional economy. The construction of the 2ndinternational airport, located in Daxing in the vicinity of theBeijing–Tianjin corridor, is planned to start in 2011. This majorproject is another example of urban development embedded inan extended regional development vision that will almost certainlyhave major distributive effects on the Beijing’s economic andspatial development.

8 Many graduates live in a shared apartment in the peri-urban, with less 10 m2 foreach; such phenomenon is compared to ant-people.

9 According to Beijing Municipal Environment Bureau, in 2010, 53 days with thehighest level (Level I) of air quality (Air Pollution Index (API) 6 50), and 233 days withlevel 2 (API 6 100), see http://www.bjepb.gov.cn/bjhb/publish/portal0/tab377/info20226.htm.

Challenges of urban developments

The vision of becoming a world city and the city developmentthat is considered necessary to achieve this goal is, however, notwithout problems. A major challenge for the city is the continuingstrong growth and the fundamental change from a low-end manu-facturing-led economy to a modern service-oriented economy. Thespatial structure of the city has to be further adapted to betteraccommodate the increase in population, production, consumption

and mobility and the new types of economic activities and lifestyles. The following aspects are the most challenging issues:

(1) The city is ever more facing the pressure of its rapid popula-tion growth. The new census reported the population is ashigh as 19.6 million in 2010 (Beijing Statistic Bureau,2011), well above the planned population of 18 million by2020. So more people are competing for work, housing,transportation and social welfare in the urban space thanhave been considered in official policies and plans.

(2) With the city growing bigger, urban poverty is an increas-ingly crucial issue. It involves the massive influx of migrantworkers, who suffers unprivileged housing, social status,welfare (including healthcare and schooling for their chil-dren), and working conditions. It also includes less-skilledworkers who lost their positions as the city quickly shiftsaway from traditional manufacturing (Zhang & Pei, 2007).A recent issue needs special attentions is that fresh collegegraduates live in a poor condition due to very low income.8

Most of the poor is accommodated in so-called ‘villages’ in thecity. Owing to a variety of reasons including the image andsocial stability, these villages are not welcomed like in manyother Chinese cities (Hao, Sliuzas, & Geertman, 2011), con-cerns however should been given to provide secure livingand working conditions to those people.

(3) Air pollution, fresh water shortage and insufficient wastetreatment capacity increasingly become major problems inthe city. Although mitigated since the 2008 Olympic Games,air pollution is at a level that Beijing only has few days ofhigh air quality9 and is especially severe during the springsandstorms. Waste treatment requires much attention asabout 3200 mu land is required for land fill of solid waste

Fig. 14. Strategy of ‘two-axes-two belts’ for Beijing. Source: Based on Beijing Master Urban Plan, 2004–2020.

Z. Yang et al. / Cities 31 (2013) 491–506 503

during the planning period 2011–2020. Currently water con-sumption has reached 3.6 billion m3, far exceeding the 2.6 bil-lion m3 production capacity in Beijing.10 A large nationalproject is being carried out to transfer water from South toNorth China, including Beijing, which is expected to deliveradditional water in 2014.

(4) The water problems are expected to further aggravate withclimate change. Total precipitation has reduced since 2000and the dry weather greatly affects water storage volumesand water availability for all uses. As agricultural productionis also affected food security has come under pressure.Although most of Beijing’s food is imported from otherregions, farming is still an essential part of the local econ-omy; moreover it also provides many jobs for migrant farm-ers and elderly rural residents, making it a key element intackling poverty (Yang, Cai, & Sliuzas, 2010) To maintain asufficient supply and a high-quality food a certain level ofregional self-sufficiency is still desirable.

(5) The challenges in realising a world city status include turn-ing its comparative advantages into competitive advantages,especially for sectors like education, technology, culture andpersonal services. Research however shows that the relativenumber of patents granted to Beijing’s hi-tech industry isonly half the country’s average (Zhao & Wu, 2006). In addi-tion, the development of the cultural and creative economy,although growing, still needs to be carefully guided and sup-ported in order to attain goals related to value creation andheritage and identity preservation. The economic and cul-tural projects are closely related to urban rehabilitation

10 The limitation of Beijing’s population and the pressure for the future, from TheNewspaper of Economic Review, Feb 21, 2011, available at http://msn.ynet.com/view.jsp?oid=76801986&pageno=2.

and redevelopment and aim at balancing the northern andsouthern part of the urban spatial economy.

(6) In economic development, private and public relationshipsare important for financing and managing projects. The nat-ure of the recent production and employment generationgrowth indicates that the private sector has already playedcrucial roles in city development. However, the growingimportance of the private sector threatens to draw publicinvestments and policy attention away from their main focusof ensuring long-termpublic welfare, including the reductionof urban poverty. A critical point is how to define and main-tain a fair balance between public investment and privateprofits within their co-efforts in equitable city development.

(7) Another challenge relating to the economic growth is thetransition from a strong dependence on Foreign DirectInvestments (FDI) to an effective and efficient balance andsynergy between foreign and domestic capital provision.The growth of FDI shows that Beijing is likely to becomean increasingly important player within the global economy.However, over-reliance on export-orientation has its risks,as was demonstrated by the fluctuation in FDI during theAsian and global financial and economic crises in 1997 and2008, as well in the current global recession. On the otherhand, over the past 30 years’ of development, domestic cap-ital has not been exploited to its full potential in Beijing andother large Chinese cities. It is therefore time to reconsiderthe future policy path for sustaining economic momentum.

(8) The mono-centric urban form exerts pressures on transpor-tation, housing and the environment and transportationcongestion has become a headache for Beijing citizens. In2005 the traffic volume on the north and west parts of the4th ring road was over 160,000 vehicles per hour at peaktime (Beijing Transportation Research Center, 2005, p. 42).In 2007, about 3.1 million cars and buses drove on Beijing’s

504 Z. Yang et al. / Cities 31 (2013) 491–506

roads, 2.3 times the number for 2000. Within the 4th ringroad, the average vehicle speed had slowed down to20–40 km/h in the morning peak and 20–35 km/h in theevening peak (Beijing Transportation Research Center,2004, p. 52). Such extreme congestion is largely due to themono-centric model and the lack of major sub-centres, inef-fective highway nodes, and poorly developed public trans-port systems. Because diverting traffic or providingalternative routes, 50% of trips occur within the 3rd ring road(Beijing Transportation Committee, 2005; Beijing Transpor-tation Research Center, 2005). Congestion is particularlyworse at the entry and exit points for the city centre alongthe 3rd ring road and is extending to the 4th ring road. Alsoowing to the mono-centric model, most people cannot enjoysufficient green spaces. This deteriorates their living envi-ronment and for residents in the core and inner districts,access to peripheral green areas is increasingly difficult,though some large green spaces do exist in urban core itself.

Fig. 15. The concept of ‘multi-centres’ in Beijing. Source

(9) A problem, overarching the challenges mentioned above, isthe lack of a clear, coherent and systematic developmentpolicy that is worked out and implemented consistently.The penalty for an imperfect land financing system hasappeared recently in the form of increasing consumer prices,resulting in high living costs for the citizen. Largely due tothis effect, in 2010 Beijing was not the priority place for col-lege graduates and many white-collar workers are consider-ing leaving the city. During 2010 and 2011, new policyinitiatives were taken to intervene with the increasing priva-tisation of the housing market and to stricter control priceson the house market. But the main aim of these measuresthat were strongly based on hukou, was to regulate the influxof people into the city. These measures therefore werediscriminating against the rights of migrants and have alsocontributed to high costs of living for the ‘non-hukou’ inhab-itants of Beijing, potentially aggravating urban poverty formany low income persons.

: Based on Beijing Master Urban Plan, 2004–2020.

Z. Yang et al. / Cities 31 (2013) 491–506 505

Planning and policy responses

The most interesting concept introduced in the planning prac-tice in response to the urban economic-spatial dynamics, is thatof Economic Clusters (ECs). Economic Clusters now form a part ofstrategic, master plan type, policy documents. Based on Beijing’sexisting strengths and developmental aims, plans are developedfor ECs in key industries, taking into consideration contributingsub-industries and prescribing supportive measures. The latest11th national 5-year plan (2006–2010), which prioritised thehigh-end service sectors, including finance, business, informationand communication, and knowledge industries, is a reflection ofthis approach. Plans for individual industrial sectors are also made.The plan for services sectors argues for more emphasis on culture,logistics, conventions and exhibitions, sales, education, tourism,real estate, household and personal services and health care. Themanufacturing plan emphasises information and communicationmanufacturing, electronics, pharmacy and related equipments,professional machinery, automobiles, clothes, food and printing(Beijing Development and Reform Commission, 2006; BeijingIndustrial Development Bureau, 2006, 2007). The overarching goalis to bring Beijing to the status of a full-fledged world city, with astrong and diverse economic base, particularly in high-endservices.

The response in the spatial policy for Beijing is the concept of‘two axes, two belts and multi-centres’, which is elaborated inthe current urban plan 2004–2020. As Fig. 14 illustrates, one axisis along the Chang’an Street, which is the heritage ceremonial axis.The other one, along the north–south cardinal direction intersectswith Chang’an Street at Tiananmen Square and is the major devel-opmental axis, which has been formed and developed since the1978 plan. The two axes conceptually represent the main structureof the urban centre. ‘Two belts’, the concept used for configuringthe spatial organisation at the municipal level, comprises the east-ern belt designated for economic functions, and the western beltdedicated to environmental protection. With these spatial con-cepts, the main goals of the latest urban plan are to develop Beijingas a global and liveable city besides its undisputed status as thepolitical and cultural centre of the nation (Beijing Municipal Com-mission of Urban Planning, 2005). The liveable city concept ad-dresses environmental and spatial aspects by considering landand water resources for sustainable development and natural eco-logical quality for living, but it is also related to the city’s physicalinfrastructure, including transport and residential services for peo-ple working and residing in the city.

To realise the planning concepts described above, ‘multi-cen-tres’ are designated in the developmental axes and belts (Fig. 15).These centres include existing and emerging economic areas, suchas Zhongguancun, the CBD and concentrations of services such asthe Asian Games Village and the Olympic Park areas, but also manyexisting but centres as well as several new centres.

Since ECs have been major drivers of transition in Beijing, theyare expected to play a major role in integrating urban economicand spatial developments, both at planning and implementationstages. However, unanswered questions still remain on how sucha role is made operational in practice. The current blueprint typeof economic planning should be changed into a more dynamicand flexible instrument in which ECs can be used to improve theability of urban (spatial) planning to accommodate economicdynamics.

In the economic policy, ECs are treated in a traditional way:picking winners and taking them as pillars of future economicgrowth. They were selected without considering the complemen-tary relationships between industries, so choices made may betoo limited and rigid to capture the incubated economic opportu-

nities and fully recognise the role and function of each sector.The awareness of the symbiotic relationships between the publicand private economies, which are unmistakeable in contemporarycluster practice, is lacking in current economic planning. Therefore,the elaboration of cluster thinking may improve economic plan-ning design on the cooperation among industries and the competi-tion with the external environment. Such an innovation shouldimprove the efficiency of economic management and the abilityof economic policy to cope with uncertainties in the market andcan realise local potentials.

The planning practice and development of ECs also directlyinfluence other aspects of the city. Tuning the locations of employ-ment and housing is a major concern in relieving transportationpressures. As BYEDZ is a main EC development in the 11th 5 yearplan period, three large sites of residential areas were planned inthe southern districts, two of which, Yizhuang and Huangcun arenear BYEDZ, will house about 70,000 and 37,000 residents respec-tively. The new ECs are mostly designated in the peri-urban ring,which may mitigate environmental and ecological problems.

In general, the main idea of ECs in spatial planning is to changethe current mono-centric urban form to a polycentric pattern.Quite similar planning ideas, like key towns or sub-centres, wereproposed in the 1950s, 1980s and again in the 1990s, but nonewere realised for a variety of reasons (Beijing Municipal Commis-sion of Urban Planning, Research Institute of Beijing City Planninget al., 2007). A lesson learned is that the new nodes in a polycentricurban system must be multi-functional to provide a diverse andlarge number of jobs. In this sense, the functioning of ECs in thesesub-centres is particularly important if they are to have more suc-cess than their predecessors.

Conclusions

This paper presents the Beijing metropolitan region as a fastgrowing and vibrant urban economy in transition. This transitionprocess has been occurring in the context of the various on-goingreforms in China. The relaxation of the Household ResponsibilitySystem (HRS) encouraged the mobility of people. Major reformsof the land and property markets facilitated a more efficient phys-ical urban expansion and restructuring. These institutional reformsled to the establishment of the market economy in China and newinterrelationships between economic and spatial developments.The dynamic economy, with surging economic outputs, is largelydriven by privatisation and the influx of foreign investment.Accordingly, urban space has been expanding and redevelopingvery fast but basically maintaining the city’s mono-centric spatialstructure.

To become a world city is Beijing’s leading vision in designingits economic and urban policies for future development. This ambi-tion is supported by the strong or emerging ECs, including ICT,FIER, ES, CI and Machinery. These clusters will sustain the fastgrowth and attract more international companies and talents. Withthe economic development and inflow of new labour, the urbanspace will also be inevitably expanded and has to be re-organised.

Rapid urban growth and change is not without problems. After30 dynamic years, it might be expected that Beijing will start a newphase of transition. The essence is to maintain its ecological andenvironmental sustainability on water, waste treatment and foodsecurity, while facing a substantial population growth. Economi-cally, the city needs to carefully manage its private–public partner-ships and attain more balance and synergy between foreign anddomestic capital inputs. In addition, a related challenge is tochange its mono-centric urban form to be polycentric with a moredecentralised and multifunctional spatial organisation. This shouldrelease the pressure on transportation, housing and ecological

506 Z. Yang et al. / Cities 31 (2013) 491–506

protection, that more and more are transferred into costs for eco-nomic development and for the quality of life. In order to relievethe transportation pressure and the high housing prices, some pol-icies were issued recently to control population numbers by meansof depriving immigrants of some of the rights that the ‘non-hukou’population have, such as buying housing and cars in the city. Thisirrational and inconsistent measure leads to much uncertainty forthe people living and working in the city in the future. To be aworld city, a sizable population with lower skills, working inlow-end services will be needed for supporting the high-end work-ers. Until nowmigrants have formed the majority of the employeesin these low-end services. Draconian anti-migrant policies willtherefore surely have undesirable side effects on the migrantsthemselves as well as on those who employ their services.

Sound policies for ECs in both a functional and a geographicalsense and in both regional-economic policy and in urban planning,are necessary and are badly needed. To a large extent, current ur-ban economic and spatial developments are driven by the develop-ment of these ECs in the extended urban region. A key challenge isto establish a mutually interactive mechanism in policy analysisand design to better guide economic-spatial development, as anecessary condition to fulfil Beijing’s ambitious target to becomea world city that will also accommodate an effective approach tosustainable development.

Acknowledgements

The research was sponsored by National Natural Science Foun-dation of China (Grant No. 41001101) and ITC research fund. Theauthors also thank the editor and 2 anonymous reviewers for theirextensive comments and suggestions that have strengthened thepaper substantially.

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