China Headlines: Winter Olympics brings opportunities for ancient city's revival
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E-mail Xinhua, August 7, 2015
Zhangjiakou was once a booming horse and fur hub in ancient China, but with cars and textiles replacing its economic lifeblood in modern times the northwestern city has been reduced to poverty.
Located 200 kilometers northwest of Beijing, the city is home to 10 national-level poverty-stricken counties, accounting for a quarter in the province.
Hundreds of years ago, it played an international role as a gateway to Russia for China's booming horse and fur trade. It also boasts China's first independently-built railway, the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway built in 1909.
But it has lagged far behind its eastern peers and moved slowly since the opening-up reform in 1978. with a population of 4.6 million, its per capita gross domestic product (GDP) in 2014 was 30,729 yuan (5,021 U.S. dollars), less than a third of Beijing.
With a weak industrial foundation, it is now facing a tough economic situation. Its annual GDP growth dropped to 5.2 percent in 2014 from 14 percent in 2010.
The attention brought by the 2022 Winter Olympics will translate into economic benefits that will be a windfall for the city's development, said Chen Jian, deputy head of the China Society of Economic Reform.
Construction of sports venues, infrastructure and rising tourism revenues will contribute 7 percent to the annual GDP growth in Zhangjiakou, lifting poor people out of poverty in 2022, said Chen.
The number of tourists in Chongli County, which will host the biathlon, Nordic combined, ski jumping, snowboard, and freestyle skiing events in the 2022 Winter Olympics, rose to 1.67 million in 2014, up more than 60 percent than that of 2012, according to official statistics.
Property prices in the county rose from 4,000 yuan per square meter in 2012 to more than 7,000 yuan per square meter in 2015, according to a housing agent surnamed Hou.
SACRIFICE, INTEGRATION WITH BEIJING
A location of military importance for centuries, Zhangjiakou opened to the outside world in 1995, more than 10 years after China's introduction of economic reform and opening-up policies.
The city has seen slow economic growth due to its heavy responsibility as an ecological protective screen for Beijing.
In order to shield sandstorms from Inner Mongolia, Zhangjiakou constantly spent money to plant trees. As it is on the upper reaches of the Miyun Reservoir, the biggest source of water for Beijing, it needs to provide abundant water flow and ensure its quality.
Agriculture and industrial projects with high water consumption and pollution risks are banned in the city. Paddy rice was ordered to be changed into less profitable corn crops in order to save water since 2007.
Around 16,600 hectares of farmland in Chicheng County, Zhangjiakou City, have been transformed into forest since 1992, which reduced the local government's revenue by about 260 million yuan annually.
Although Beijing has given massive ecological compensation to Zhangjiakou over the past decade, the investment did not translate into new growth.
Without transferring industry, capital or resources, Zhangjiakou cannot have substantial development, said Liang Haoguang, head of the economy research institute with the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences.
Improving transportation infrastructure will speed up the transfer process. A high-speed railway is currently under construction and will cut the travel time between Beijing and Zhangjiakou from three hours to around 40 minutes once completed in 2017.
Zhongguancun Science and Technology Park, a high-tech pioneer in the country, will set up a branch in Zhangjiakou, which will bring electronics and information industry as well as advanced manufacturing to the city, said Liang.
A guideline on coordinated development for Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei was approved by the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee in April. Liang suggested using Zhangjiakou's abundant tourism resources in the regional framework.
"The joint bid for the Winter Olympics is a milestone of the regional coordinated development," said Gu Shengzu, a Beijing-based senior economist.
"Without the exceptional snow in Chongli County and Beijing's experience and reputation, the bid would not have been successful."
The State Council, or China's cabinet, has approved the establishment of a renewable energy demonstration zone in Zhangjiakou, which will bring unprecedented opportunities to the city, said Guo Junfeng, deputy head of the municipal development and reform commission.
High-tech industry, new energy vehicles, high-end equipment manufacturing, biological medicine and tourism have become Zhangjiakou's new development focus, said Guo.
More than 200 programs with 20 million U.S. dollars investment each were signed in Zhangjiakou in 2014. More than 80 wind power projects are under construction or planning, he said.
The Winter Olympics will bring more than 200,000 jobs to the local residents and drastically change lives in Zhangjiakou, said Hou Liang, mayor of the city. Endi
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