An executive meeting of the State Council, or China's cabinet, has passed in principle a new city plan for Beijing, which will replace the 1993 resolution.

According to the city plan for Beijing from 2004 to 2020, the municipality will change the current "one center" layout model to a "multi-center" one, which means that several more city centers with different functions will be built to form an urban structure that features a center as well as new satellite cities and townships.

Districts including the Zhongguancun high-tech park core district, the Olympics center district and the central business district will become new key city function centers.

To date, a total of eleven new satellite cities have been set, including Tongzhou, Shunyi, Yizhuang, which will work to channel the population in and functions of the central parts of Beijing and promote regional development.

According to experts, a key breakthrough in the plan is that it integrates the development of urban and rural areas and regional development.

According to the plan, the city will continue to develop along the traditional south-north axis and the east-west axis, along Chang'an Avenue, to safeguard the functions of Beijing as the national capital and cultural center.

At the same time, Beijing will build an "eastern development belt" on its eastern outskirts and form a "western ecological belt" on western and northern outskirts.

The "western development belt" will serve as an ecological barrier that works as part of the efforts to build Beijing into a city suitable for human living.

The planning also indicates the municipality will limit its general population to about 18 million by 2020, compared with its permanent resident population of 14.56 million in 2003.

(Xinhua News Agency January 15, 2005)