The "Beijing Urban Master Plan" for the period between 2016 and 2035 submitted by the CPC Beijing Municipal Committee and Beijing municipal government, has been approved by the Communist Party of China's (CPC) Central Committee and the State Council; this is a major thing for the future development of Beijing. The Master Plan pointed out that Beijing is the capital of China, being its center of national politics, culture, international exchange, and science and technology innovation, as well as highlighting the relationship between "capital" and "city", "abandonment" and "gain", "ease" and "improvement", as well as "a core" and "two wings", fulfilling the primary duties of serving the leading units of the Central Party and Government, the international exchanges, the development of science and technology and education, and the people's livelihood.
The latest edition of the Master Plan has a large amount of information, clarifying many vague problems in Beijing's urban development in the past, the orientation of the development, and explicitly mentions the development goals, which will have great impact on the future development of Beijing. To understand the Master Plan, one needs to understand the following points:
(1) The Master Plan emphasizes that "one blueprint until the end"; this implies that changes of the plan in the future are prohibited; development must be done strictly in accordance with the plan, and it is not allowed to violate the rules by conducting the works without prior notification.
(2) The Master Plan emphasizes 23 million to be the population limit; this limit will be maintained for a long time. This is the first time to limit the population to a serious, hard indicator.
(3) Not only that the old city has to be dismantled, there will also be a new plan to conserve the Royal Mountains and Gardens of Beijing.
(4) The red line of the land is unprecedentedly strict, and it is clearly required to control the urban built-up area of Beijing, and the built-up area will shrink in the future, which means part of the built-up area needs to be restored.
(5) It is prohibited to make a contiguous built-up area at the boundary of Beijing city, which means that the construction of Yanjiao is a counter-example, and the contiguous development plan of Hebei Gu'an is also suspended.
(6) The water security is highlighted; it is the shortest short-term factor for Beijing's future development constraints, and Beijing's future water treatment costs are surprisingly high.
(7) Necessary elements and functions would be transferred to Xiong'an New District. It is not ruled out that Beijing will demolish a number of high-rise buildings; that is what Anbound forecasted 10 years ago may be realized.
(8) Focusing on the capital function is the overall goal of Beijing's development. On this basis, a good grasp on the relationship between "capital" and "city" must be made. Anbound has long analyzed the relationship and importance of "capital" and "city" and has stated that the key to Beijing's past urban development errors lies in the failure to understand this relationship. The Central Committee and the State Council's approval of the Master Plan is a fundamental correction of such an error.
(9) Beijing needs a real architectural language. The architect's past role was only "wholesale draftsman". In the future, there will be fewer places to build in Beijing; architects must learn the real architectural language.
(10) Beijing needs a new generation of developers which do not merely take the land to build and crudely expand, but cultured developers that engage in quality projects and urban renewal.
(11) Beijing's finances will be unprecedentedly tight; under economic, industrial, factor output adjustment, there is the need to improve Beijing's construction and service standards, and therefore it is inevitable that Beijing will issue bonds in the future.
(12) Beijing's economic growth will decline, and it is estimated that Beijing's economic growth rate will be around 5% in the future. However, the growth rate has dropped a bit, and it is worthwhile if it makes the city more "flavorful".
Chan Kung said in an internal discussion that, "the Central Government and State Council's approval of the core guiding ideology of the Beijing Master Plan is commendable and the most decent planning idea so far. This is not because it confirms some of my past views, but also because there is another important reason: on the 'capital' and 'city' issues, this time the plan and the approval have very well grasped the relationship between 'capital' and 'city', rather than just emphasizing the one-sided 'capital function' and demand that Beijing sacrifice development, future, and everything to maintain the 'capital function'." Chan Kung pointed out that the Central Government's approval of Beijing's urban planning, while determining the basic positioning of the capital and outlining the "city" in general; for the first time it defines the city's development profile, recovers the "old Beijing" and allows Beijing to have the characteristics that the city should have. This has nothing to do with the capital; rather it is entirely a concern and demand for a city. It should be said that this is Beijing's first reflection on the philosophy of urban development since the "Great Leap Forward" in the last century. There is now reflection, strategic orientation positioning, and performance of planning language.
For a thousand-year-old city like Beijing, such a result is gratifying, but unfortunately. it is too late. The damage caused in the past can only be compensated within certain limits, such as the protection of the Royal Mountains and Gardens and the protection of the city. One cannot reverse the actual damages have been made in the past. Chan Kung said that he has repeatedly mentioned that Beijing is a sacred cultural city in China's real sense, and it requires certain skills to understand this. Unfortunately, this has long been ignored. In fact, for a long time, Beijing has never really worked hard on culture under the control of all the nouveaux riches, as it was money-oriented, and there was no hard work on urban development philosophy, the city leaders are even ignoring this. It is because there are issues on water resources, population size, environmental carrying capacity, and haze. The current reflection and conclusions are done when the situation is dire; even the excellent future work can bring a limited recovery and protection to Beijing. Reviewing the development of China's cities in the past, some renowned institutions and universities that control the planning and design of Chinese cities had done more harm to Chinese cities.
As a culturally sacred city in China, Beijing has developed to the point where it is today a quite representative. In addition to Beijing, other cities in China should also reflect. For example, in Shanghai, there is the demolition of old neighborhoods and old houses. In Xi'an, other than a broken old city wall, there is no sign of it being an ancient city. Chan Kung feels that China's urban economy is lost in the quagmire of urban development philosophy. While one should reflect on what is the most needed as a city and why is this so, yet under money-making orientation, these have become irrelevant. The cities have become the same everywhere, the populations have grown, and some cities are even over-urbanized beyond the environmental carrying capacity. This is the mistake made by the leaders of Chinese cities in the past, and there is a huge price to pay. There is "the victory of the city", but China has lost the "cities for the people".
Any city has its past and present; it is not only about the current population, but also the collection of the historical communities. There are people today; there were also people in the ancient times. There are modern civilizations and ancient civilizations, and they all have value and significance. It is not just a matter of modern people, nor is it just a personal matter. The Central State Council's approval of the Beijing's Master Plan clarifies Beijing's loss of development philosophy. In the future, Beijing needs to balance "capital" and "city" to return the glory and spirit of Beijing as a sacred city.
