On February 10, during the 9th meeting of the Central Leading Group for Financial and Economic Affairs, the Chinese President Xi Jinping stated that easing the non-capital functions of Beijing in addition to promoting the coordinated development of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei would be a huge systematic task. He pointed out that China would need to devise a model to optimally develop population-dense areas through easing of the non-capital functions of Beijing and adjusting the economic and spatial structure in order to promote a regionally coordinated developmental effort.
In fact, many of the major markets that have existed in Beijing for a long time have begun to relocate. Given this, the relocation of Beijing's administrative center to Tongzhou has become less of a plan and more of a matter of fact.
All of this greatly elevated the importance of Tongzhou overnight. Tongzhou's original strategic positioning was to serve as the sub-center of Beijing. Some believe that with the relocation of the Beijing administrative center and the central government's expectations of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei integration, Tongzhou's strategic positioning should be adjusted upwards to become a "sub-political center". It is normal for different people to have different expectations for the city. However, looking from the perspective of urban research, central cities generally refer to the most developed and largest cities in the region. Sub-central cities are cities second only to the central cities in terms of population and size. Therefore, the term of "sub-center" is actually defined by the urban network. As it is, Tongzhou is some distance from Beijing. This sense of distance is not easy to eliminate, so defining Tongzhou as a center has its reasoning as well.
In fact, with Beijing as the center, there are still several places that can be defined as "sub-centers". Tianjin for instance, has submitted the plan to build a national administrative sub-center, and hopes to take on certain new capital functions. For this, Tianjin will strengthen its planning and construction of the two districts adjacent to Beijing, Wuqing and Baodi. Furthermore, it seeks to improve infrastructure and focus on the development of e-commerce, modern logistics and technological innovation. They believe that the positioning of the sub-center should one that is convenient for transportation with Beijing and that possesses a certain industrial base.
Regardless if it is Beijing's capital relocation or the integration of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei district, the Chinese central government has never opposed the status quo of Beijing existing as an independent city. In fact, the integration of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei will further strengthen the regional status of Beijing's as a central city. Beijing has thousands of years of history. This is not only owing to its geographical factor, but also its socio-economic development factors. The factors that made Beijing the capital are not likely to disappear within a few years, even in a few decades. The key question is how to ease Beijing's non-capital functions and urban pressures, and at the same time realize the central government's expectations of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei integration under the existing conditions of the urban network.
Our suggestion is that according to the requirements of the central government, complemented by the actual situation in Beijing, Tongzhou should adjust the strategic positioning of its plan, especially on its positioning as the sub-center and establishing itself as the "shintoshin" of Beijing". Shintoshin, literally means "new urban center", is a concept of distributed urban centers. A city can have several centers and sub-centers. These centers and sub-centers can have different functions, but they simultaneously assume the functions of a city, avoiding the overemphasis of a particular core function.
Currently, there are success stories on the implementation of shintoshins for Tokyo and other major cities in in Japan. In Qingdao, China, plans for the construction of shintoshin are being implemented. From the perspective of urban research, the introduction of the concept of shintoshin to Beijing and Tongzhou for their strategic reorientation will not only effectively adjust the spatial structure of the city, but also help to define and understand future urban and socio-economic developments.
Final analysis conclusion:
The coordinated development of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei has brought Beijing's development into a period of major adjustments. Beijing and Tongzhou can introduce the concept of shintoshin and carry out a strategic reorientation between them. This will not only effectively adjust the spatial structure of the city, but also help define and understand the future of urban and socio-economic developments.
