Key Points of Planning Draft for Reconstruction and Expansion of Beijing City
in the year of 1953 – 1954 At the day of new China founded, Beijing city was dotted by thousands of wounds and hundreds of undertakings waiting for establishing, and the construction in large-scale will soon be started, and moreover the construction was too scattered and occupied too much land at that time, the master guidance for city construction was badly needed. In Spring of 1953, the Capital Planning Commission put forward two master plan scheme for construction, namely scheme A and Scheme B ( view attached Figure 1, 2 ).


The time limit for two schemes are all 20 years and there is no difference in major layout of the city. The total population in the planned city was 4.5 million, and the total area of land used was 500 km2. The area of development is: to Gaobeidian in east, to Liangshuihe in south, to Changxindian of Yongdinghe in west, and to Qinghezheng in north. In summer of same year, on the basis of A & B schemes, the urban plan group of the Municipal Party Committee put forward the Key Points of Planning Draft for Reconstruction and Expansion of Beijing City. The following six basic principles are listed in the key points of planning draft:

Firstly, the central district of the whole city shall be served as the location of the departments for Central Government and Party Central Committee, and make it into a center yearning by the people of whole country.

Secondly, The Capital shall become the center of politics, economy and culture in our country and especially it shall become a powerful base of the powerful industry and a center of science and technology in our country.

Thirdly, during reconstruction and expansion of the Capital, it should proceed from the city base which formed in history, it should not only preserve and develop the style and characteristic in conformity with people’s requirement and but also break through the limitation and constraint of the old pattern, and reform and remove the parts which hinder city development and unsuitable for people’s demand, and enable the Capital to become a socialist city suitable for the life style of collectivism.

Fourthly, for the buildings left in history, the attitude of complete negation is not correct; and the view points and measures to complete preservation and constrain the development are also wrong. Currently, the main trend is the latter.

Fifthly, during the rebuilding of the road system, it shall proceed from the existing condition as far as possible, and but should not be constrained more by the existing situation.

Sixthly, the climate in Beijing is dry with more wind and sand, and lack of necessary water source and this kind of natural condition shall be transformed in a planned way, and create a favorable condition for industry development.

The planned city scale for 20 years, the city population will be 5 million and the land to be used for construction will be 6 million km2. The key points of planning are: the administrative center shall be located at the central part of old town. The big industry district and big agriculture district shall be built in the city suburbs. The northwest suburb of the city is designated as culture and educational area. The pattern of road shall be the chessboard plus with ring road system in radiation type. The size of residential community shall be 9 -15 hectares, mainly build the houses in 4-5 storey with big streets as the basic unit. Lead the water from Yongding River and Chaobaihe River to the city, and open urban canal. Expand the green land area and build the forest, forest shelter belt and seedlings nursery farm, and transfer the railway ring outside the urban city, and the terminal passenger railway station shall be located outside the Yongdingmen.

On the aspect of urban infrastructure, develop the trolleybus and bus, taxi; expansion the running water; the rain water and sewage has been separated in flow; construct more power plant; develop the coal gas supply; plan the subway; unified plan and design the underground integrated pipelines.

In 1954, on the basis of the Key Points of Planning Draft for Reconstruction and Expansion of Beijing City, the revision has been made based on the comments of the Central Government ( refer to attached Fig. 3 & 4). Though this draft is not so maturity and it’s not approved formally by the Party Central Committee, but this Planning Draft is basically observed in city construction during the first Five-Year Plan period.