Decongesting cities is a major problem facing governments and analysts across the world. The problem is more for cities that are old and with urban infrastructure and planning lacking the physical space to rapidly expand and modernize. For many cities, geographical boundaries become major limitations for their expansion. Even if city development is essentially vertical with emphasis on tall constructions, the supporting infrastructure, particularly for public transport, needs space to expand.

This need is being felt by Beijing for quite some time now. The plan to integrate Beijing, Tianjin and Baoding - in Hebei province bordering Beijing - into a joint development region is expected to result in significant decongestion by easing both the residential and industrial pressures on Beijing.

The Beijing-Tianjin-Baoding model of development is expected to have Beijing as the core and Tianjin and Baoding as the two arms of the core stretching into the periphery.