Top facilities, services for better living

E-Town's world-class facilities and excellent services have created an ideal platform for encouraging entrepreneurship and fostering high-tech talent, investors said.

"Unlike its peer in the United States, the Silicon Valley, which often turns silent in the evening, the hustle and bustle occurs at all hours of the day in E-Town."

A decade ago, E-Town, then a vast plain southeast of the capital that was once home to farm collectives and fertile rice fields, would likely have seemed an odd location for a hub for high-end, high-tech industries.

Today, Beijing E-Town is at the heart of a new movement toward high-tech industries in China and is equipped with first-class road and rail links combined with an increasingly impressive internal infrastructure. It is ideally positioned from subway stations, the fifth and sixth ring roads, the airport expressway and highways that connect the area to surrounding cities.

Entertainment and dining facilities within the zone include shopping malls, cinemas and 10 supermarkets.

Its one-stop administrative office buildings provide services in taxation, customer relations and administrative governance. Customs services within the zone have reduced bureaucratic wrangles for business operations.

The area is also host to a number of startups and helps these young firms with funding and subsidy procurement if they meet central and city government requirements.

Across the zone are new apartment complexes and housing developments as well as a range of first-class hotels.

Education resources range from kindergartens and primary schools to middle and international schools popular with expatriate families. The Beijing Vocational College of Electronic Technology offers tailor-made, specialized training for companies within the zone.

Chen Young, a general manager for GE Healthcare, said a substantial proportion of new hires at the company, which currently has 7,000 employees, choose to live in or near the zone.

Living costs in the zone remain relatively low compared to downtown Beijing. Zone officials also said there are considerable environmental advantages, such as the lack of traffic congestion and hazy skies.

Keeping the skies as clear as possible is a priority. Since its inception, E-Town has had a powerful commitment to creating as green an environment as possible. Streetlights are powered by LED bulbs, for example.

The biggest change to E-Town's infrastructure will come with the highly anticipated opening of a second international airport, provisionally named Beijing Daxing International Airport, that is located just 20 kilometers from E-Town.

The 200-billion-yuan airport, which will cover an area of 2,680 hectares, is slated for completion by October 2018. It will be linked to the city by a 37-kilometer subway and high-speed rail. The opening of the new airport could shift the axis of industry and infrastructure, aviation logistics, exhibition conferences and the location of high-end companies to E-Town.

When the first flight takes off from Daxing, E-Town will find itself within easy reach of two major international airports.

Contact the writers at zhengjinran@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 09/22/2015 page6)