Completed projects in northern Beijing suburb improve life for residents

Beijing has made remarkable achievements in improving public service, traffic management and infrastructure in the Huilongguan and Tiantongyuan communities, a large residential area in the northern Changping district, a senior official with Beijing Municipal Commission of Development and Reform said at a news conference on Tuesday.

Li Sufang, the commission's deputy director, said 117 scheduled projects have been launched and 62 were completed on time during the three-year action plan, which started in 2018.

As a densely populated area that covers 63 square kilometers and has about 863,000 residents, people in the Huilongguan and Tiantongyuan communities have long complained about difficult access to education and healthcare, and congested traffic.

Since the action plan began, 17 kindergartens and schools have been built in the area, with 7,000 vacancies, adding to the school enrollment. Another 15 ongoing projects in education will supplement 13,000 more vacancies when completed.

Introducing teaching resources in the area from prominent schools, such as Tsinghua University Primary School, will have met residents' demand for good schools, Feng Hongrong, an official with the Municipal Education Commission, said at the news conference.

More than 10,000 seniors have benefited from the 28 elderly care institutions that began operation in the past three years, Li said. When the expansion of two major hospitals is finished, 1,200 new hospital beds will be equipped in the area, she added.

Free-flowing traffic on Lincui Road in the area has shortened 30 minutes off office workers' commuting time while commuting speed on some easily congested roads has been lifted 50 percent, thanks to traffic management, Li said.

So far, more than 2.7 million cycling trips have been made on the capital's first dedicated bike lane that opened in the area in May 2019, saving 30 percent in commuting time between Huilongguan and Shangdi, where many high-tech companies are located, said Rong Jun, spokesman for the Municipal Commission of Transport.

About 100 bus lines cover 97.5 percent of the area, while the efficiency of the major subway lines has been improved, he added.