Beijing’s new annex
A plan to build a city from scratch that will dwarf New York
Will Xi Jinping’s dream come true?
Apr 6th 2017| SHANGHAI 北京的新陪都 平地而起打造的雄安新区将超越纽约 嘿嘿能否如愿以偿？
THROUGHOUT Chinese history, the dawn of new dynasties often involved moving the entire capital, imperial palace and all, to a new city. By those dynastic standards, Xi Jinping’s ambitions are modest. He simply wants to shift some of Beijing an hour’s drive to the south. But by the standards of modern urban development, his vision is grand indeed. All going well, the new area, known as Xiongan, will cover 2,000 square kilometres, nearly three times the size of New York City or Singapore. A “first-class international city”, as the planners put it, will rise from land that is home today to scrubby fields, a large lake and a series of drab towns.
纵观中国历史，朝代更替通常伴随着迁都。从历朝标准来看，嘿嘿的野心不大，他只不过希望是把北京的部分职能转移到一小时车程以南。但从现代城市发展来看，这个设想十分宏大。如果一切都顺利，雄安新区将覆盖超过2000平方公里，接近纽约和新加坡的三倍。规划者称，国际一流大都市将拔地而起，而现在这里是荒原、一片湖和几个破败的村镇。
China, which sometimes opts for modesty in unveiling plans lest they fall flat, did not hold back on April 1st when it revealed those for the “Xiongan New Area” in Hebei province. An official statement described Xiongan’s development as a “strategy crucial for the next millennium”. It compared the project to the creation of China’s two most spectacular built-from-scratch urban expanses: Shenzhen, a metropolis next to Hong Kong, and Pudong, Shanghai’s glittering financial district.
在中国，虽然嘿嘿为避免无功而返有时候释放政策会谨慎，但4月1号愚人节这天却高调宣布在河北省建立雄安新区。官方称雄安的发展是“千年大计”。它被和两座全国平地而起的城市建设奇迹做比较：毗邻香港的大都市深圳，上海引以为傲的金融中心浦东。
The point of Xiongan is to tame Beijing’s surging population, which has caused gridlock on its streets and exacerbated a chronic shortage of water. The capital has been trying for several years to encourage people to move out of its core districts. To make commuting easier, it has been improving transport links with nearby cities. By the end of 2017 the municipal government is due to relocate from the centre to Tongzhou, a suburb to the east. But Xiongan is the first entirely new city to feature in the effort. It is named after Xiong and Anxin, two counties in Hebei that will form the bulk of its territory along with a third county, Rongcheng—see map.
雄安新区的作用在于分流北京飙升的人口，人口压力加剧了道路拥堵和长期水资源短缺。为了使交通更便捷，北京一直在改善到周边城市的交通线。到2017年底，北京市政府本该从市中心迁到市东郊的通县。但雄安才是第一个分流北京城市职能的全新城市。雄安名字源于河北的雄县和安新，加上第三个县容城构成了雄安主要区域。
Beijing will still serve as the capital. But businesses and universities unrelated to that function will be urged to move to Xiongan. Mr Xi wants the new city to have a “beautiful environment”, with high-tech industries and efficient transport. By the end of its first phase (time unspecified), it will cover 100 square kilometres, almost double the size of Manhattan.
北京仍将是政治中心。但与政治不想关的商业中心和大学被要求尽快搬到雄安。嘿嘿希望新城环境优美、科技发达、交通便利。到第一期工程结束，新区将超过100平方公里，几乎是曼哈顿的2倍。
In China bedlam often ensues in the rush to build. There has already been a taste of this in Xiongan. Within hours of the announcement about the new city, speculators were flocking to the area’s existing property developments to buy up whatever was available. Highways leading to it were clogged with cars. Its housing prices tripled. To rein in the exuberance, the government ordered a halt to all property transactions in the new area.
在中国通常大兴土木后紧随其后的是各种乱象。雄安已经初现端倪。新城宣布的几个小时之内投机者蜂拥而至，现有的可售房产都被买光。通往雄安的高速公路上塞满了车。房价是原来的三倍。为了抑制房地产投机过热，当地政府下令叫停了所有的房产交易。
Jokes abound on social media about the wealth that Xiongan’s rural residents will soon enjoy (if officials forgo their common practice of seizing land for little compensation). One was a spoof ad, written as if by someone from the countryside whose marriage prospects now look bright: “Male, 53, two acres in Xiongan, seeking woman, 25 or younger, beautiful, preferably with study-abroad experience”.
雄安农民很快将要发家致富的段子充斥在社交媒体上（前提是嘿嘿放弃低价赔偿征地的通常做法）。这个段子是恶搞的征婚广告，可能源自于雄安农民婚姻前景的一片光明。“男，53岁，离异，无孩，农户，在雄县有两亩地，希望女方25岁以下，英美留学优先"。
It would be unwise to bet all on Xiongan’s rise. Over the years China has tried to build numerous new cities, several of which have been costly failures. More than a decade ago the government declared that the Binhai New Area, a vast development in Tianjin, would be north China’s answer to Shenzhen and Pudong. It has never taken off. Another stillborn project was Caofeidian, an “eco-city” in the Bohai Gulf. Internet censors have been deleting any doubts that netizens have been raising about Xiongan. An article asking whether the new city would be the second Shenzhen or the second Caofeidian disappeared soon after it was published online.
将全部身家压在雄安的明天是愚蠢的。这些年来嘿嘿曾大力兴建很多新城，有些是造价不菲的失败造城项目。10多年前嘿嘿宣布建设滨海新区，但它从未崛起。另一个胎死腹中的项目是曹妃甸，渤海湾的生态城。有篇文章问雄安是第二个深圳还是第二个曹妃甸，一经发表很快被删掉。
But Xiongan has a big thing going for it: the full backing of Mr Xi. News broadcasts showed the president touring the area and chairing a meeting about its development. So long as Mr Xi remains China’s leader—ie, at least for the next five years—building Xiongan will be a priority.
但雄安有一大优势：得到嘿嘿的大力支持。新闻广播报道嘿嘿曾调研过这个地方并为它的发展主持会议。只要嘿嘿仍然是国家的领导，至少接下来的五年，建设雄安将是首要任务。
Whether this is a good idea is another question. Taking Beijing as it exists today—a city of more than 20m people with 19 subway lines, dozens of universities, a large cluster of high-tech firms and umpteen road and rail connections to other large cities—and trying to make it work better might be more sensible. Yet given all of the capital’s urban maladies, the temptation to start with a clean slate is hard for planners to resist.
建立雄安是不是好办法另当别论。立足北京并努力改善可能更有意义，北京有超过2000万人口、19条地铁、几十所高校、大规模的科技企业和连通其他大城市的公路、铁路。然而考虑到北京的城市病，从无到有建立新城的诱惑让决策者难以抗拒。
原文
http://www.economist.com/news/china/21720318-will-xi-jinpings-dream-come-true-plan-build-city-scratch-will-dwarf-new-york
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