Daily Times

After 70 years of arduous endeavours and leadership vision, China presents a brand new Beijing, brimming with high-tech development and artificial Intelligence (AI). After integrating Chinese’s legacy and heritage with latest innovative work, China’s capital sets a new direction of sustainable progress and green development.

It is just an onset of inclusive success. More are ahead. The reason is that Beijing adheres to the view of scientific and technological innovations as the first force for high-quality development.It has built a national scientific and technological innovation centre with its Three Cities and One Zone: Zhongguancum Science Park, Huairou Science City, Future Science City and Beijing Economic and Technological Development Zone. It is the main platform to promote the overall strength of Beijing’s scientific and technological innovation capabilities.

The Zhongguancum Science Park focuses on establishing the cradle of original innovation and main front of independent innovation with global influence. The Huairou Science City concentrates on establishing a new international and an open management and operation mechanism. The Future Science City attaches importance to stimulate vitality by introducing open scientific research platforms and innovation elements, and increasing research and development investment. While the Beijing Economic and Technological Development Zone emphasises the optimisation and upgrade of major industrial projects.

In the past few years, Beijing’s global venture capital and private equity investments are second only to Silicon Valley and double that of New York

Beijing has rich scientific research and talent resources, boasting more than 90 colleges and universities, more than 1,000 research institutes, 120 national key laboratories, 68 national engineering technology research centres, and nearly one million teachers and students.

Half of the country’s top talent and laboratories are in Beijing. About half of the country’s top ten scientific and technological progress and the first prize of the national scientific and technological achievements come from Beijing annually. The existence of 111.2 patents for innovation per ten thousand people, about ten times of national level, ranks Beijing in the first place. Beijing also ranks first in China in terms of its proportion of investment in scientific research and development to GDP, with 5.6 percent in 2017, 2.5 percent more than most innovative countries.

Beijing’s industrial innovation continues to strengthen. In the past few years, Beijing’s global venture capital and private equity investments are second only to Silicon Valley and double that of New York. About 250 innovative companies emerge every day in Beijing. There are 2,500 high-tech enterprises in Beijing. The amount of venture capital and the number of cases account for about 30 percent of the whole of China. Among the latest Unicorn List, there are 80 companies in Beijing, accounting for nearly half of the country, ranking first in the country. In 2018, the artificial intelligence industry realised an operating income of about 150 billion RMB, with more than 400 core enterprises and about 30,000 professional talents.

In 2018, Beijing ranked twice as the first among 31 provinces across the country. Firstly, its per capita GDP exceeded 20,000 US dollars, reaching 21,300 US Dollars. Secondly, the labour productivity of all employees was 240,000 RMB per person; the per capita disposable income basically goes hand-in hand with the economic growth of the city. Beijing’s economic growth rate has remained between 6.5-7 percent, and the total economic output has increased by 40.2 times compared to 40 years ago.

Beijing marks as a cultural centre of China. It has a long history of ancient capital culture, with the rich red culture, the distinctive Beijing culture and the vigorous innovative culture. It carries out world cultural heritage application for the central axis; protects Hutongs, courtyards, celebrities’ former residences;and takes care of the historical sites and contents so that the essence of the city with a history of thousands of years can be saved.

Beijing has worked hard in the prevention and control of pollution. It continues to make great efforts to protect its blue sky and its rivers and soil from pollution. In 2018, the average concentration of sulfur dioxide reached a new low for two consecutive years. In March 2019, the United Nations Environment Programme released a report titled A Review of 20 Years Air Pollution Control in Beijing, pointing out that the air pollution control work in Beijing should be added in textbooks as an example so that it can be referred to by other cities around the world.

In order to further the cause of introducing Beijing to world, a ceremony of the Rediscovery of China upon the 70th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China (PRC): China-Friendly Netizens’ Silk Road Tour of Beijing activity was launched in collaboration with the information office of the Beijing municipality and CRIOnline.

Addressing the ceremony, CRI Online head Zang Julin welcomed foreign celebrities from 13 countries including Pakistan. He said that since the BRI was proposed in 2013, it had progressed tremendously on the basis of friendship and mutual understanding among the people.

In the recent yearsm relying on China Media Group’s all form and multi-media communication pathways, the CRI Online has given full play to its media advantages, activity innovated communication content and methods, and has released authoritative information in a timely manner to form huge, positive energy on the internet.

What impressed me a lot during a visit to the community-based centres in Beijing is the inclusive and pragmatic public-centric ‘vision’ that revolves around healthy engagement of elderly people after their retirement from their respective fields.This vision has given a new life to old people, allowing them to remain an active part of society. The community based centres have turned into living havens for them as these centres have cultivated an ambience in which the elderly remain busy in multiple activities, doing their favourite things, making chitchat and learning new technological skills in order to modernizs themselves and stay relevant according to high-tech changes in society.

In the last phase of their lives, their biggest enemy is loneliness, leading them to societal alienation and depression. During my visit, I observed that these community centres are playing an anchoring role in mitigating effects of isolation. At least, all the people I met who were living in the centres had smiling faces and a zest for life.

The public-centric vision is so charismatic that hundreds of volunteers have joined these centres to serve old people. Considering it their national responsibility, they are ever ready to deliver with a sense of humbleness and solemnity.

By establishing these community-based centres, Beijing has set an excellent precedent to keep integrating the new generation with the old generation. This relation of the old and the new has proved once again the point that Beijing has its own exclusivity to stay ahead of others, as it does not progress in the materialistic sense but on humanism protecting the elderly against all odds and ensuring what they deserve. To my perspective, these community-based centres are the best role models for those societies that are struggling to decide what the government’s role should be, how elderly people may be efficiently engaged, and how a team of volunteers may come into action to shape up a true modern city.

My exclusive perspective about the Peking Opera is that the Chinese culture is not complete without the Peking Opera. It has been performed over the last many centuries, but people’s bond with it has never faded away. I believe that if someone wants to experience China’s traditional and culture values, the Peking Opera is the best window to peep into that. The reason is that it is embedded into China’s ancient lifestyle, dynamism, bearing and gestures. The Peking Opera is part of the rich culture that is formed with the total accumulation of beliefs,customs, values,behaviours, institutions and communication patterns that are shared, learned and passed down through generations in an identifiable group of people.

Hutong has its own uniqueness as it is developed in isolation to the rest of the world. Since the ancient times, Beijing was not open to other civilisations and cultures, and thus remained protected from various influences. This distinguishes Beijing Hutong from other cultures.

The architecture of Hutong streets and courtyards is so captivating that even after two days, I could not free myself from its mysticism. They connote a sense of grandeur that applies to everything from walkways to exteriors and interiors of houses, and categorisation of rooms and items of daily use. From the practice of dynastic period emperors who used to host banquets with uncountable dishes per meal, over time, the many-dishes tradition became a part of the everyday culture of Hutong.

With the passage of time, and often being a victim of neglect, even marvellous relics and heritage items are wrecked. To keep them alive, a dedicated conservation policy makes things happen. In the Hutong case, in collaboration with people, the government has been working extensively to protect the Hutong culture. I think the government understands the worth of the Hutong culture, and that is why it is being maintained as per international standards.

The writer is President, Institute of International Relations and Media Research and ICFJ fellow. As a veteran journalist, he works for the China Economic Net, China Today and Global Times