Beijing Experience
We are Stefania Koutsoupia, Manwlis Nanouris and Romalea Ntregka, post-graduate students of MA in Cultural Management at Panteion University. As part of the Athens Co-Creation City Branding Project and under the lead of Betty Tsakarestou as our professor and project initiator, we were challenged to discover the best city-branding tactics for Athens, wondering what can make the city a strong player in the worldwide cultural field.
Within this framework, we were challenged to study city indexes in order to unlock development patterns used by prevailing cities worldwide. We decided to further examine Asia and three cities in particular; Tokyo, Seoul and Beijing. The reason behind our choice is that Asian cities are today a paradigm of technological development and, also, a paradox, given that they combine conservative political strategies with innovative and liberal economic policies.
Asia has experienced rapid economic growth and urbanization over the last decades, and Beijing is one of the Asian capitals at the forefront of such changes. With an increase in population of 10 million from 11 million to 21 million from 2000 to 2014, Beijing has struggled to balance sustainable living and rapid growth. Beijing’s 76th position out of 100 countries measured in the Sustainable Living Index of Arcadis is an indicator of the challenges it faces, several of which will be analyzed below.
A key indicator of sustainable living is the focus on “people”, and more specifically indicators of education, health and crime among others. In the area of education, China has made huge strides of improvement in literacy rates and of widening access in tertiary education; however, the share of population having access to tertiary education and the large inequality observed in educational outcomes between rural and urban areas still create challenges for the Chinese government. In the area of health, China’s life expectancy has significantly increased, due to better nutrition and higher prevalence and access of medicines across the country. However, the lack of a comprehensive public pension system and the increasing problem of obesity means that China still ranks low (45/100) in the health index. In terms of crime, the increasing police presence in the city has significantly reduced petty crimes in the city, however, homicide rates still remain high relative to other developed cities.
A second key indicator of sustainable living for which Beijing has received a lot of negative press attention is the focus on “planet”, and namely on energy, air pollution and drinking water among other indicators. With regards to air pollution, the presence of heavy industry, the lax regulation in emission means Beijing ranks 97th out of 100 countries in this indicator, and images of smog and masked people make world headlines frequently around the world. Furthermore, Beijing struggles to use renewable energy and has a very high energy consumption per $ GDP, partially due to coal plants and inefficient heating in accommodation that has been badly constructed, creating huge challenges for the citizens of Beijing. Additionally, due to water pollution as a result of industrial presence around the city, available drinking water remains at very low levels, meaning citizens resort to bottled water for their daily needs, pushing up their daily cost of living.
The third and final key indicator of sustainable living is the focus on “profit”, and namely on transport infrastructure, tourism and ease of doing business, among others. Beijing suffers from huge daily traffic jams which disrupt business and trade, and while the subway system has been expanding and a new airport is about to be opened, the ease of transportation around Beijing still remains low. This is also a reason why tourism in Beijing has been increasing over the years, however not at the rate it was expected by the authorities; most signs around the city are still in Chinese, movement around the city is challenging for foreigners and pollution remains a hindrance for a proportion of international visitors. Finally, despite Beijing having reduced the rules and regulations around opening and maintaining a business, there are frequent complaints by Western companies that unnecessary laws are still in place that does not facilitate business, and is also a reason why several Western companies have been relocating their businesses elsewhere in Asia.
In conclusion, Beijing has been experiencing rapid economic growth and development over the last decades. However, the challenges of rapid urbanization and growth has negatively affected sustainable living in the city, and has placed a strain on the local government to address key issues citizens face daily.
