The Tongzhou district in southeast Beijing has finally been confirmed as the capital's sub-administrative center.Some of its city administration will be moved out of the city center to the eastern suburbs under a national strategy to coordinate the development of Beijing, Tianjin and North China's Hebei Province, officials said over the weekend.

Beijing will accelerate the shift of its non-capital functions to Tongzhou and other nearby places, and progress should be evident by 2017, according to the Beijing municipal committee of the Communist Party of China. 

Why does the city need a sub-administrative center?

“The excessive concentration of administration departments is a cause of Beijing's ’urban disease‘, and moving the municipal government to Tongzhou is part of the devolution of Beijing's non-capital functions. This process is the core of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region coordinated development plan,“ said Huang Yan, dean of Beijing Municipal Planning Commission.

Huang said that "urban disease" is faced by international mega cities such as Seoul, Tokyo , Paris and London. Building a sub-administrative center with efforts made at the national level is a solution to this common problem.

Why does the Tongzhou District stand out?

According to Wang, after 20 years of development, Tongzhou already has the qualities for sub-administrative center in terms of convenient transportation net, good ecological environment along the canal and branches of sophisticated schools and hospitals.

“Tongzhou District has available land resources of approximately 55 square kilometers, which is plenty for admitting non-capital functions according to a preliminary estimate” added Wang Yan.

What is future plan of Tongzhou ?

After the completion of a stereo transportation network consisting of fast-railway, highway, subway, the time for traveling to downtown will be reduced to half an hour.

Building an open traffic network, connecting airports, emerging communities with surrounding cites in Hebei province

Improving living environment and building avenue for walking and cycling

Configuring better public resources, such as hospitals and schools 

The article is edited and translated by Chinese version of 《北京行政副中心怎么建（政策解读•聚焦）》, source: People's Daily.