The Beiyuan neighborhood in Tongzhou District, east of Beijing. (Photo : The Line 21 Project)
Beijing has to move its administrative offices to the eastern Tongzhou District to relieve the pressure on public services, if the capital’s leading think tank should have its way.
In the annual report on public services by the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences released on Tuesday, the municipal government needs to relocate its municipal administrative bodies from the downtown area to Tongzhou in order to attract more of the city's population out of overcrowded areas.
"Those administrative departments should play a leading role during the relocation, since they are the decision-making bodies of Beijing's city restructuring plan," said Pang Shihui, a researcher from the academy.
Tongzhou District has attracted much attention recently after a report published on June 13 by Wenweipo, a Hong Kong newspaper, said that Beijing's municipal government is allegedly moving to a compound in the district. The report went viral online.
According to the newspaper, top Party leadership and the Beijing government will move to Tongzhou before National Day on Oct. 1.
Municipal government offices are currently located on Zhengyi Road near Tiananmen Square, with other administrative agencies scattered throughout the area.
The newspaper said that the new offices will be built in Lucheng Township, outside of the eastern Fifth Ring Road.
Many public hospitals, universities, and large state-owned companies are also said to be moving out, amounting to a total of roughly 15 percent of the city's population of more than 21 million.
The Beijing municipal government neither confirmed nor denied Wenweipo's report.
In May, Beijing mayor Wang Anshun said that the government has no plans on relocating its administrative bodies to Tongzhou.
As early as 2004, urban planning experts have been recommending Tongzhou be made as the city's subcenter.
In 2012, the municipal government announced that the district would be designated as a subcenter.
However, some experts say the change may have come too late.
"Tongzhou District has actually become a well-developed area and also the home of more than one million people," Pang said.
"Without an overall plan, transferring people from the center to the suburb brings nothing but even worse traffic jams."
