Satellite city Baoding rolls out welcome mat to 'guests from Beijing'
Capital's 'unwanted' hospitals, wholesale markets and high-tech firms are welcome, but not its big polluters, says mayor
Baoding will set aside 115,000 hectares of development sites to absorb branches of Beijing-based institutes and companies to ease the burden of the overcrowded capital, the city’s mayor told local media.
The city, located 140 kilometres from the capital in Hebei province, will develop 34 new districts to host their “guests from Beijing”, Baoding mayor Ma Yufeng told the Beijing Times on Monday.
According to planning directives issued by Hebei’s provincial government and party committee last week, Baoding and Langfang will become satellite cities of the capital in the development of the Jing-Jin-Ji region (Chinese shorthand for Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei).
“Some of Beijing’s leading hospitals have already moved some of their functions to Baoding,” Ma told the paper. “The construction of Chinese PLA General Hospital’s base in Zhuozhou [a county-level city administered by Baoding] started in December.”
Baoding lies on the Beijing-Shijiazhuang High Speed Railway that opened in 2012, putting it within 40 minutes’ travel time from Beijing, Ma added.
Baoding is developing three districts around high-speed rail stations along the line into technology hubs to host universities and high-tech firms.