Healthy social environment key to urban development

To solve the problem of ever-increasing urban ills, first-tier cities in China have taken strict measures in recent years. Beijing, for instance, has decided to move the "non-capital functions" out of the city.

As Beijing boasts the most advanced high-tech sector, and employment absorption and social service capacities in China, its population growth has been very high. The capital's population absorption and environmental adjustment capacity, however, is limited, resulting in many urban diseases such as resource shortage, traffic jams, high housing prices and air pollution.

So according to its new urbanization development orientation, Beijing has decided to control its population size. And as a part of that process, the central government and the Beijing municipal government have decided to shift their non-capital functions out of the capital.