On October 14, 2017, the Ministry of Housing and Rural-Urban Development, NDRC and the Ministry of Finance jointly approved and issued the first batch of Chinese characteristic towns. In the list which 127 towns from 32 provinces are involved, Beijing Fund Town is listed as the only one whose goal is to build fund industry ecological circle.

On October 14, the Ministry of Housing and Rural-Urban Development officially issued Notification on the First Chinese Characteristic Towns List. The Notification showed that, based on the local recommendations and after review of the professors, the NDRC and the Ministry of Finance countersigned to approve Changgou Town and other 127 towns in Fangshan District, Beijing as the first batch of Chinese characteristic towns. Since then, the "national team" of characteristic towns was officially born.

Whole story of the list of "national" characteristic towns

On July 1, the Ministry of Housing and Rural-Urban Development, NDRC and the Ministry of Finance jointly issued the Notification on Practicing Characteristic Towns Development and decided to practice the development of characteristic towns in the whole country. It also proposed to develop about 1,000 characteristic towns by 2020. The Notification clarified the guiding ideas, principles, goals and development requirements for the construction of characteristic towns. Since then, Chinese characteristic town construction started to have a "national standard".

The construction of characteristic towns is an important carrier for the rural and urban development plan. The cultivation of characteristic towns is mainly about building distinctive industrial form and harmonious environment, demonstrating special traditional cultures, providing convenient and improved facilities and services and constructing energetic systems and mechanisms. 

Characteristic town is an enterprise community with coordinated innovation and cooperated win-win as well as innovation and entrepreneurship platform with clear space boundaries. The goal for the construction of characteristic towns is to form the great environment which is suitable for living, working, starting business, traveling and resting so that people can experience the countryside charm different from urban life.

Changgou, Beijing is at the top

In the list issued by the Ministry of Housing and Rural-Urban Development, 127 characteristic towns from 32 provinces are involved. There are only 3 towns in Beijing in the list, which are Changgou Town from Fangshan District, Tangshan Town from Changping District and Gubeikou Town from Miyun District respectively. However, among all the listed towns, only Beijing Fund Town is the characteristic town whose development goal is to construct the fund industrial ecological circle.

Changgou Town, Fangshan District: It has the spring wetland ecology which is rare in north and over 12,000 springs keep flowing all year round. For one year, Beijing Fund Town organically integrated fund industrial ecology and spring wetland ecology and dedicate in constructing an international finance town with ecological environmental protection, intelligent technology, living and working suitability and industry and city integration. It is listed into the "13th Five Year Plan" of being and is the key project to promote the coordinated development of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei.

It is said that for the characteristic towns which meet the conditions, the NDRC and other authorities shall supply them to apply for special construction fund and the central finance will provide proper awards for the towns with relatively good work achievements.

Fully play the example and demonstration role of “national” characteristic town

On October 13, the Central Finance Leadership Office, NDRC and the Ministry of Housing and Rural-Urban Development convened the characteristic town (city) construction experience communication conference and concluded the practice experience of promoting characteristic town in a year. It pointed out:

Characteristic town construction needs to adhere to “innovation, specialty and reform”, which means building the new carrier of the integration of urban and rural advantages, new platforms for rural and urban entrepreneurship and innovation and the new mechanism for the communication of rural and urban factors. Adhere to building the town with industry, accelerate the development of special advantageous industry, promote the transform and upgrade of rural and urban economy and prevent one appearance for all towns; be advantageous for the promotion of supply-side structural reform and economic transform and upgrade as well as the transform of development engine."

If you pay attention, you would see that there were a lot of recommended towns in the characteristic town recommendation notice issued in August, but there were only 127 Chinese characteristic towns in the first batch. So the first batch has been screened strictly. The publishing of the first batch of characteristic towns is definitely playing a role of example and demonstration for the construction of the characteristic towns in China.

Three authorities jointly issued the Notification to propose the five main requirements on the development of characteristic towns.

The first batch of Chinese characteristic towns means that the national government highly admitted the planning concept and developmental trend of Beijing Fund Town. From now on, Beijing Fund Town will adhere to the construction guidance of five major development concepts of “innovation, coordination, green, open and share” to build the fund industrial ecology circle, serve the financial innovation and lead the scientific and healthy development of fund industry. Deeply integrate the coordinated development of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei to support the construction of the “bridgehead” of Beijing-Baoding-Shijiazhuang development axis, lea the new normal and assist the construction of “high-grade” economic structure of the capital. Build a modern and functional characteristic town with integration of industry and city and matching of living and working.

Just like what the media said, "the brand, policies and capital provided by the government are only catalysts, what is more important is the "soul" of characteristic town. And industrial feature is the "soul" of characteristic town. Beijing Fund Town shall start from being listed in the first batch of Chinese characteristic towns to fully play the demonstration role as one of the first batch of characteristic towns "national team" with its specialties and differences. It shall explore the regional industry transform and development road under the new economic normal together with the characteristic towns themed with finance and fund to assist the scientific and healthy development of Chinese fund industry.