Xiong'an


Xiong'an New Area is a state-level new area in the Baoding area of Hebei, China. Established in April 2017, the area is located about 100 km southwest of Beijing and 50 km east of downtown Baoding. Its main function is to serve as a development hub for the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei economic triangle. Additionally, "non-core" functions of the Chinese capital are expected to migrate here, including offices of some state-owned enterprises, government agencies, and research and development facilities.
The area covers the counties of Xiong, Rongcheng and Anxin. Its name is a compound of the first elements of the names of two of them: Xiong and Anxin. The construction of the area is described as part of the "millennium strategy". Unlike other "new areas", Xiong'an's development is taking place under the direct oversight of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council.
The temporary government office of the New Area is located in Ao Wei International Hotel in Rongcheng.

History

China's central government was considering to relocate a number of Beijing's administrative and back-office functions to Baoding, as Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the Communist Party of China, told US former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson personally in July 2014, and said this idea was his "own personal initiative", according to Paulson's memoir Dealing with China.
The name and the location of the New Area was confirmed on a meeting of Politburo Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China on March 24, 2016.
The announcement of the New Area. was released to public out of the blue on the afternoon of April 1, 2017. The information was so confidential that local government didn't know it in advance. Xi Jinping's visiting accompanied by Xu Kuangdi, former leader of Pudong New District, to Anxin on February 23, 2017 was revealed for the first time by news program Xinwen Lianbo on that night.

Geography

It has an initial phase development area of 100 km2, composed of 60 villages in Rongcheng and Anxin. The New Area would plan to be eventually expanded to 2000 km2 in the future.
Baiyang Lake, northern China's largest freshwater wetland, is also included within the new area.

Administrative divisions

Xiong'an New Area consists of 3 counties:

Transportation

Railway

and Baiyangdian railway station, on Tianjin–Baoding intercity railway, are within reach.
Xiong'an railway station, on the Beijing–Xiong'an intercity railway, will open in 2020.

Airport

serves the area.

Expressway

It is currently served by two expressways, G45 and G18.

Real estate

A flood of footloose capital, much of it from Beijing, has been searching for properties in Xiong'an to invest, causing real estate price in this area to skyrocket rapidly since the announcement of the New Area. Local government has since imposed a temporary ban on new property sales.
The model of real estate development in the New Area may use public housing in Singapore for reference, according to a senior officer's interview on People's Daily on April 5, 2017.