Jia Qinglin, the former secretary of the Beijing Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) said early last April that Beijing would build a world class Central Business District (CBD) in its core area.

　　Beijing unveiled plans to create a bustling, glittering central business district (CBD) in its eastern rim, in a bid to become a commercial metropolis on top of being China's political and cultural centre.

　　Beijing cannot be all political for its size and population. We cannot and need not recreate history by building more courtyards and palaces, said Mr. Sun Mingming, executive deputy director of the Investment Promotion Service Centre of Chaoyang District at the 2nd Beijing Chaoyang International Business Festival.

　　When the idea was broached to create a CBD, the city's administrators jumped at it, seeing this as a way to highlight Beijing's economic significance. Beijing's business district is to have the allure of Shanghai's Pudong New Area so as to compete with it for domestic and foreign investments.

　　Economic research by the World Bank shows that in the first 10 years of the 21st century, developed countries will accelerate their pace in entering an information age, with investment and trade becoming an important impetus to the economic development of a country or a region. The construction of Beijing's CBD, which will serve as a modern business hub in amalgamating world wealth and promoting international trade, conforms to this new trend of economic development.

　　Figures showed that Beijing's inner city alone is more populous than Washington DC. The CBD will be distinct from the inner city, making it a new attraction in the capital.

　　The coming out of CBD plans

　　The CBD plan was initiated in the early 1990s, and it has been included in Beijing's 10th Five-Year Plan (2001-2005). The CBD would have a cosmopolitan style as well as a traditional Chinese style, said the official when meeting with a panel of experts who examined and commented on blueprints submitted by applicants all over the world. The city asked for experts from other countries bids for the CBD design, and has now received eight candidate scenarios.

　　The Chinese capital will become a combined Washington-New York, Tokyo-Osaka or Canberra-Sydney,?said Sun.

　　There are several so-called business circles?in Beijing, including those around the China World Trade Center, Chaoyangmen Wai Avenue, the Lufthansa Center and the Asia Games Village. The China World Trade Center business circle, centering on the planned golden Cross has became the golden area in Beijing with a powerful economic strength and the most modern business buildings. The regions around Chaoyangmen Wai Avenue and the Lufthansa Center are closed to the embassy neighborhood and have huge development potentials with the many department stores, financial institutions and office buildings. The Asia Games Village business circle, newly emerged in north Beijing, has embraced the regionsintosthe traditional urban districts of the capital city after morn than 10 years of construction.

　　The tentative location of the district was between Chaoyangmen in the north and Jianguomen in the south, and between the East Second Ring Road in the west and the East Ring Road in the east. The district was finally delimited in 1998 in Beijing's Detailed Plan for the Construction of Downtown Area. Covering a total area of 3.99 square kilometers. About 3 million square meters of land could be used and 10 million squares meters of commercial buildings will be built in the district.

　　Promising future

　　In the next 3 to 5 years, people in Beijing will witness the construction of the district and enjoy the multi-functional, Internet-linked one-stop service it provides. With state-of-the-art facilities, complete services and a pleasant environment, Beijing will build a brand-new central business giant from all over the world.

　　The district enjoys favorable conditions to develop its foreign trade and exchange. It is indeed a central district for international business activities in Beijing and the entire country. It will give top priority to the development of four service industries: namely, information services centering on communications, Internet, news media and information consultation; financial services such as banking, insurance, securities, trust and investment and fund; intermediary agencies of financial accounting, auditing, appraisal and legal service; and new services of vocational training, conference and exhibition, and international business. The thriving of the four industries is believed to meet the demand of the various international business activities in the city and around the world.

　　It can take up to 30 years for a newly established international CBD to mature, because of its long period of construction and uncertain elements. Beijing will introduce a flexible system of construction, constantly adjusting the CBD design according to domestic and international economic situations, as well as market demands.

　　To accelerate construction of the major items in the CBD, the Beijing Municipal Government will help enterprises involved in CBD construction find overseas cooperative partners and offer them preferential policies in raising fund, project registration, getting approval for projects and relocation of plants.In contrast to CBDs in the US and Hong Kong, Beijing's will be more resident-friendly as office buildings are to be interspersed with apartment blocks, condominiums and cultural facilities.

　　Guarantees by Scientific Plan

　　The general design of the CBD includes one overall plan and four special ones: the overall plan covers distribution of space and use of land; the four single designs are for environment and scenery, transportation, telecommunications network and infrastructure construction. Beijing invited well-known designers, architects and related experts from home and abroad to appraise the numerous proposals. The final design absorbed the essence of many others.

　　To create an environment for modern international business activities, priority will be given to the construction of information networks, roads and facilities for water and power supply. The roadway area of the CBD will make up as much as 39 percent of its total, linking it to the rest of the city in all directions. Takingsintosaccount the development of private cars and traffic facilities that include railways, pedestrian pathways and parking areas, CBD designers have devised macro and micro plans as well as short-term and long-term plans for the development of transportation infrastructure.

　　These include the plan for construction of two metro lines, in which the utilization of underground space has been putsintosfull consideration. For instance, in the underground core area, shops, garages and walkways will be connected with each other. An initial plan for building an information network, Digital CBD?has been made by Beijing Telecom and related departments.

　　The CBD design is of international standard, as it had been repeatedly discussed and improved by foreign experts. It is also economically viable, since the use of existing buildings and those to be constructed have been fully takensintosconsideration. In regard to transportation, the design suits the traffic situation several decades from now. The CBD will combine the functions of business, culture, science and technology, recreation and residencesintosone.

　　Based on Market Mechanism

　　The construction of the CBD is not only the development of real estate but also of the long-term economy, said Qiu Shuiping, deputy director of the Management Office for CBD Construction. He said that, based on the system on land purchase and reserve, the government would control the overheated land development and make sure the project is undertaken in an orderly way. One-third of land is already in the hands of developers, and the government will have the rest of the land auctioned to developers.

　　Beijing's CBD will formulate special policies to absorb talented people, in the hope of making itself an international talent market. With its entrysintosthe WTO, China will have a greater demand for international business talents. A survey by the Ministry of Personnel of China showed that these business professionals are listed second among the 10 most badly needed professionals in China. The manager of the Beijing Personnel Market believes that the CBD will become home to a large amount of such people. To this purpose, Beijing will loosen policies on residence permit and schooling for business professionals and their families from outside Beijing.

　　The other side of the coin

　　Detractors point precisely to the surfeit of commercial and retail space already plaguing the city.

　　Mr Song Yingchang, associate fellow at the Urban Planning Office of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, side that the planners are too optimistic about the economic prospects of the CBD. although other Chinese cities are building CBDs, it does not mean Beijing must keep up with the Joneses.?In fact, he has heard that every district in the city is planning to build something like CBD of its own.

　　He also sees a CBD as an anachronism which has no place in a post-industrial age. the CBD concept is a backward one in the information age, he said.

　　CBD

　　CBD, the central business district, refers to a zoned business spaceswheresa great many facilities such as office buildings, hotels and apartments are built for financial, business, trade, Information and intermediary agencies, with complete municipal works, transportation and communications conditions to facilitate their business activities. The construction of the central business district demonstrates the opening up and economic strength of a country or a region. It's also a symbolic mark of a modern international metropolis

　　The world's first CBD appeared in the United States in the 1920s. Today, Midtown Manhattan in New York, La Defense in Paris, Shinsiku in Tokyo, and Central in Hong Kong are well-developed CBDs known all over the world.

　　Shanghai

　　Shanghai, China's leading industrial, financial and commercial center has pledged to turn Lujiazui areasintosa well-equipped CBD within some 10 years.

　　Under a unified plan, all buildings at Lujiazui in Pudong New Area will be linked by crossovers and business blocks, some of which will be specially designed in accordance with the particular requirements of businesses such as banks, multinationals and other types of entities.

　　By 2005, the floor space at Lujiazui financial and trade zone will cover 12 million square meters 180-200 financial and insurance companies, including 100 foreign banks, 150-180 security and financial firms and 80-90 regional headquarters of transnational companies will be housed in this space.

　　After 12 years of construction, 621 distinctive buildings have been erected on the 5.82-square-kilometer Lujiazui financial and trade zone. Nearly 130 Chinese and foreign banks with a total staff of 25, 000 are set up at Lujiazui. Twenty-five foreign banks including the Citibank, the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, the Standard Chartered Bank are now permitted to run their Renminbi transactions. Lujiazui will be a pilot regionswheresbusinesses are expected to operate in accordance with international norms.

　　Shenyang

　　Coincidentally, a similar festival was held in the Shenhe District of Shenyang, the capital of Liaoning Province on the same day with 2nd Beijing Chaoyang International Business Festival. The local government plans to build its own CBD, insgroupsto turn itsintosa modern metropolis in northeast China.