Recently, Guangzhou has given the world a series of memorable moments, such as the 30-second video clip at the Times Square in New York, the Guangzhou Night held at World Economic Forum in Davos of Switzerland, the 5-miniute promotion video for the Flower City and so on. At the end of 2017, Guangzhou will organize Fortune Global Forum and the top-500 companies of the world will be gathered.
However, it’s not the full ambition for Guangzhou.
Here are 5 things you will witness in Guangzhou by the end of 2020.
By 2020, an advanced and complete transport network will take shape in Guangzhou.
Land Transportation
In terms of urban travel, Guangzhou will have a metro traffic of more than 520 kilometers by 2020. Two new metro lines, Line 18 and Line 22, will inaugurate that year. Line 18 will have a distance of 20 kilometers, connecting Nanshan district and Tianhe district. Line 22 will a distance of 31.8 kilometers, connecting Panyu district and Baietan district.
Guangzhou is developing itself into a railway transport hub. Now Guangzhou is accelerating renovating and expanding Guangzhou Railway Station, Guangzhou East Railway Station, Guangzhou North Railway Station, Xintang Station. Zengcheng Station and Nansha Station will be added to construction list as well.
A intercity transport network of Pearl River Delta and surrounding areas will be established with Guangzhou as the hub. Rail lines under construction include Guangzhou-Dongguan-Shenzhen Intercity Railway, Guangzhou-Qingyuan Intercity Railway, Guangzhou-Foshan Circle Intercity railway, etc..
Air Transportation
Besides, Guangzhou also focuses itself on air traffic development. By 2020, Guangzhou will have a total of 150 international direct flights with a flow of 80 million passengers, increasing by 25 million than what it is now.
An Air Silk Road will developed with Guangzhou as the starting point. Guangzhou will open more international lines towards North America, Europe, Oceania and Africa and other continents and improve its visa-free policy. In addition, Guangzhou Baiyun Airport will open 30 new cargo shipping routes.
By 2020, Guangzhou will develop a 4-hour-air-traffic zone with other parts of China, Southeast Asia and a 12-hour one with major international cities.
Much more policies to woo foreign talents
Until March 15, 2017, Guangzhou has issued 1,560 talent green cards, 128 of which are foreign talents, accounting for 11.06% of the total.
According to Li Weixiong, Director of Guangzhou Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs, Guangzhou’s green card policy indicates that high-level foreign talents with experience of studying, working and starting up business abroad are qualified, including:
Experts who hold a position as associate professor or above in overseas colleges and universities, or scientific research institutes;
Innovative talents who have experiences of start-up business abroad;
Talents who hold a professional certificate;
Doctors graduating from domestic universities or masters from international top universities;
Talents whom Guangzhou is in urgent need of in specific industrial areas;
Now qualified talents won’t be able to apply for a green card unless they have worked for at least 6 months in Guangzhou. However, in 2020, 6-month working won’t be a requirement and the application will be processed immediately.
Enjoy more colorful events
Guangzhou is heading to be a cultural metropolis. More international cultural & sports feast such as Guangzhou Marathon, International Dragon-boat Tournament, Cartoon Festival, International Documentary Festival, International Cantonese Opera Festival, etc. will be held in the city.
The city also plans to build ten times more libraries by 2020. Every 80 thousand citizens would “own” a library.
Faster network speed
Guangzhou aims to fully enhance the coverage and speed of the internet by the end of 2020.
In 2020, the average bandwidth for every family will reach 300Mbps. Most of the public areas will be covered with free Wifi. Fiber-optic network will enter all of the administrative villages.
Moreover, 4G networks will fully cover the whole city and the technology of 5G network, ultra wide band will be pushed forward.
More blue days
In 2016, Guangzhou has 113 days of excellent air quality and 197 days of good air quality. The city vows to make the proportion of good air quality reaching at least 86% at the end of 2020 and the mean annual concentration of PM2.5 decreasing to 30 μg/m³.
More greenbelts and public parks are under construction. In 2020, each citizen in Guangzhou would “have” 18 square meters greenbelts and the forest coverage rate will reach 42.5%.
BY Keane & Abby
