Hebei forging ahead on new era's journey

Editor's Note: As the People's Republic of China celebrates the 70th anniversary of its founding on Oct 1, China Daily will feature a series of stories about socioeconomic development across the country. The following is the first of the series.

Li Dalong, 30, was excited when he heard that an express rail will be built between Beijing's new airport and Xiongan New Area in North China's Hebei province, where he has worked for about two years.

"Going back to Beijing will be more convenient and it's like the capital and Xiongan form one whole city," he said.

Li used to work in Beijing before he went to Xiongan in May, 2017.

He had obtained a registered permanent residence, or hukou, in the capital, which is treasured by many as it is hard to get and comes with rights to various public services.

However, he left the hukou behind to work in Xiongan, expecting a modern new city.

Xiongan New Area, set up in April 2017 and spanning three counties in Hebei's Baoding about 100 kilometers southwest of Beijing, entered construction stage this year.

It will be built into a national model of high-quality development and a new engine for the modern economic system, according to a 2018-2035 master plan for guiding the area's development.

The construction of infrastructure is one of the first projects the area has started, for which Li came to work at as a technician of prefabricated buildings with CRCC Xiongan Construction Co, a construction company in Xiongan.

"The express rail is in planning and is aimed to provide convenience for residents in the new area to take flights in the capital," Wang Dongfeng, secretary of the Communist Party of China Hebei Provincial Committee, said on Tuesday.

Wang made the remarks at a news conference held at the State Council Information Office, for introducing the development of Hebei after the founding of New China in 1949.

"The province has seen a big change over the past 70 years," Wang said. Covering 189,000 square kilometers, Hebei has a population of 75 million. Almost five million were poverty-stricken people in past, while the current number of poor is 400,000, of which 83 percent will get out of poverty this year, according to Wang.

The provincial gross domestic product reached 3.6 trillion yuan ($521 billion) last year, 889 times its GDP in 1952.

The results were achieved through a series of measures and policies, including industrial upgrading, strengthening reform and opening-up, and adhering to green and innovative development, Wang said.

He added that Xiongan is one of the province's current two wings, which are seen as development engines. Except for the construction of Xiongan, Hebei has developed in an integrated manner with Beijing and Tianjin, two big neighboring metropolises, in the past five years. It will also co-host the 2022 Winter Olympic Games with Beijing.

"With the national key projects going on in Hebei, the province is becoming a hot spot for investment from home and abroad," Wang said.