People tired of long commutes to and from work and long trips to hospitals should have a look at the Yi’an community in the Xiong’an New Area in Hebei province, which is promoting a 15-minute living circle. Xiong’an is a new city for relocated Beijing residents whose government agency or company has moved there from Beijing.
“Residents can go downstairs, walk their children to school, and then walk a few hundred meters to work,” said Dai Yue, a social worker at the community. As one of the first communities in the area to accommodate people relocated from Beijing under the national initiative to ease the capital’s non-capital functions, Yi’an offers easy access to everyday necessities. At the Yi’an neighborhood center, a commercial and civil affairs complex within the community, a canteen has more than a dozen food stalls. Residents can also find laundry, hairdressing, repair, and housekeeping services. A supermarket stocks thousands of daily goods, including fresh produce. There is also a children’s play area and a public library. The center houses government service counters handling 52 civil affairs matters, including medical insurance transfers, public transport card issuance, and business license applications. Residents can consult government workers in Beijing through real-time video links.
A 24-hour self-service area provides services including property ownership certificate printing and medical insurance inquiries. People can print their Beijing employee social security benefit statement at the self-service area in two minutes. It is relatively uncommon in China for a community to have both commercial facilities and government service offices at the same place, making Yi’an a pioneer in community assistance in the fast-growing area. Online services are also diverse. Residents can book everyday support through a mini-program on their mobile phones, including parcel and food delivery collection, medicine and fresh grocery purchases, pet feeding and walking, house cleaning, furniture repairs, and child care. Since the first group of residents moved in 2024, the community has grown to about 5,000 residents across 17 residential compounds, most of them employees of companies relocated from Beijing and their family members. These include China Satellite Network Group, Sinochem Holdings Corp, and China Huaneng Group.
The 15-minute living circle also includes three Beijing-affiliated schools: Beijing No. 4 High School Xiong’an Campus, the Xiong’an branch of Shijia Hutong Primary School, and the Xiong’an branch of Beihai Kindergarten. Located close to the community, they provide convenient schooling for the children of relocated employees. “The goal is to provide them with a living experience as convenient and comfortable as that in Beijing,” said Liu Xingyi, Deputy Party Secretary of the community. Ultimately, it is meant to help advance the integration of Beijing and Xiong’an in community services. Yi’an also operates in an intelligent and digital manner, drawing on the smart city operation system of Qidong district, where the community is located.
Its AI-powered community governance platform detects issues such as improperly parked non-motor vehicles, overflowing garbage, electric bikes entering buildings, elderly residents falling, people trapped in elevators, and objects being thrown from high-rise buildings. Alerts are sent to designated social workers for timely action. The system once detected an unusual spike in water consumption at a household. Community workers contacted the resident and discovered a leaking water pipe. Their timely intervention prevented further damage. Residents can also log into the Xiong’an smart community mini-program to submit appeals or take photos to report problems. Some residents have suggested building a cinema or charging shelters for electric bikes, while others have reported loose screws on fitness equipment and noise from upstairs neighbors. Every piece of public feedback is recorded and processed by category, she said. Residents can also make their voices heard through face-to-face communication, WeChat groups, and a community service hotline. With about 70% of residents being young people, the community also runs a youth night school offering courses in yoga, jazz dance, makeup, photography, calligraphy, and more.
The Xiong’an New Area is using digital tools to make urban governance smarter and create a better living and business environment for residents. When wind blows or rain falls, when should sanitation vehicles start work? Are vehicles on the roads violating regulations? And how can dozens of tons of waste be sorted accurately? In Qidong district, the answers can be found on a smart city platform. For example, a drone had detected vehicles parked in a fire escape passage. Almost instantly, an alert was sent to government workers, who arrived to verify the situation and persuaded the drivers to move. The entire process took about 10 minutes. The platform incorporates a meteorological model covering temperature, humidity, wind speed, precipitation, visibility, thunderstorms, and gale warnings. The smart system helps keep the air and roads clean. Potential sources of pollution, including overloaded trucks and speeding, are recorded and sent to officers’ terminals so they can be dealt with promptly, the China Daily reports.
