President Xi Jinping called for integrated and coordinated development of Beijing and its two neighboring areas of Tianjin and North China's Hebei province at a symposium on Feb 26, 2014.

After four years, significant changes have taken place in the area, let's take a look.

1. Establishment of Xiongan New Area

On April 1, 2017, China announced that Xiongan New Area would be established in North China's Hebei province to advance the coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei city cluster.

Located at about 100 kilometers southwest of downtown Beijing, Xiongan will span three counties at the center of the triangle formed by Beijing, Tianjin and Shijiazhuang, the capital of Hebei.

Xiongan will be built as an eco-friendly smart city. Four key business segments – environmental protection, traffic sensors, large data analysis and artificial intelligence – are to be its driving forces.

The first group of 48 companies has been approved to set up in the new economic area. All of them are high-end and high-tech enterprises, including internet giants Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent.