Capitalist roaders a moving tribute to central planning

Liu Lin watched one man carrying her small television wrapped in a green cloth with a bow and another with the ageing fan that kept her breathing through the long hot summers.

They walked carefully through the narrow alley, past the spanking-clean chamberpot, rusting bicycles and mounds of coal briquets stacked neatly in a lean-to shed, and put her goods on to the waiting van.

'I have lived all my life inside the old city,' said Ms Liu, 30. 'Of course, I do not want to move. My new home is 10 kilometres from here, which means a 90-minute commute to work instead of 30 minutes now. But there is nothing I can do. This road is a national project.' So it is. The city government calls it the second Chang An Avenue, which cuts through the middle of the city from east to west.

The new road, Ping An, will run parallel to Chang An, three kilometres to the north and help to ease the worsening congestion that snarls the city centre.

To make space for the 30-33 metre wide road, Ms Liu and 8,000 other people are moving and their one-storey homes being demolished, together with 3,000 shops and businesses - a total of 200,000 square metres.

'It is a project of great significance, to improve traffic flow and promote economic development,' vice-mayor Meng Xuenong said. 'It is an important step toward building a modern, international city.' The government wants the inner city to be a commercial and financial centre. The service sector already accounts for 53.8 per cent of Beijing's gross domestic product, with offices of 5,000 foreign companies, including 140 of the Fortune 500.