There are two cities in Hebei province's Xiong'an New Area, China's "city of the future" -- one is the city above the ground, and the other is the city in the high-tech "cloud". Yuan Xiaodong, CTO of Xiong'an Yunwang Technology Co, has joined the construction of the Xiong'an Urban Computing Center since the plan was first proposed in 2020, and was hailed as being the "city brain". "I have put all my past experience on this project, and what I dared not to do in the past can be realized here," Yuan told the Global Times. Yuan said that the project is part of the city's blueprint, designed to become an intelligent city featuring high-tech innovations. On April 1, 2017, China announced plans to establish the Xiong'an New Area in Hebei province, about 100 kilometers south of Beijing, in what an official statement called "a strategy that will have lasting importance for the millennium to come and a significant national event." China's central authorities have stressed the importance of planning and designing, saying "every inch of land should be clearly planned before construction," according to the official Xinhua News Agency. China's leadership also emphasized building the city with advanced science and technology, in a bid to make innovative advances the trademark of Xiong'an New Area.
With a total investment of CNY1.1 billion, the Xiong'an Urban Computing Center has supercomputing and cloud computing facilities, and provides network, computing, and storage services for big data, blockchain, the Internet of Things (IoT), AI, and VR/AR covering the entire city. The center offers an integrated data platform, video network platform, city information modeling platform and Internet of Things (IOT) platform. All the big data will be analyzed to form the basis for decision making for Xiong'an's urban construction, and ultimately serve the daily operations of the entire city. The Xiong'an Urban Computing Center was put into operation in April this year, and is only one part of the extensive network of technology being built in the city.
The city's blockchain lab, which was set up in 2020 with the goal of applying blockchain technology to aid the construction of a new and smart city, also highlights Xiong'an's focus on technological innovation. Xiong'an New Area launched the digital yuan pilot project at the end of 2019, with banks and inner-city supermarkets, hotels and e-commerce platforms trying out the digital yuan. Over its more than six years development, the city had completed a cumulative investment of CNY530 billion by the end of 2022, and more than 3,600 buildings have been erected. The city has also rolled out 3,536 5G base stations, realizing the full coverage of 5G networks in the city.
As the first experimental area in China to adopt smart transportation, the total mileage of digitalized road in Xiong'an has reached more than 200 kilometers and will be expanded to 500 km. Relying on "5G+Beidou" positioning, the city's public transport system will become increasingly intelligent, the Global Timers reports.
Another iconic project that has been completed and put into use is the Xiong'an Railway Station, which is connected to Beijing via the high-speed railway. The railway station, put into use on December 17, 2020 was built in the shape of a water drop ellipse, echoing the water culture of the Xiong'an New Area. It is currently the largest railway station in Asia, with an area six times the size of the Beijing Railway Station. This comprehensive transportation hub has combined high-speed and intercity railways, and subways. Currently, there are 17 pairs of high-speed trains shuttling between Beijing and Xiong'an daily. On May 14, it has marked 869 days of safe operation, having completed 1.44 million passenger trips. The passengers are mainly construction workers, business people commuting to and from Beijing's Daxing International Airport, and tourists. It takes 19 minutes to travel from Xiong'an Railway Station to Daxing Airport, and less than one hour to Beijing West Railway Station. Meng Hongwei, Deputy Director of Xiong'an Blockchain Lab of the Intelligent City Innovation Federation of Xiong'an, told the Global Times that the high-speed train has made the two cities of Beijing and Xiong'an seem like one." The blockchain lab, which was established in 2020 with the goal of conducting research on and applying blockchain technologies and concepts to the construction of a new smart city, also highlights Xiong'an's focus on innovation.
