21st Century (2000–present)

Chengdu Eastern New Area

2020– · China · East Asia – China · Transit-oriented urbanism and corridor planning · Planned by Sichuan/Chengdu
Aerial photograph of Chengdu, Sichuan, the metropolis driving the Eastern New Area expansion.
Aerial photograph of Chengdu, Sichuan, the metropolis driving the Eastern New Area expansion. · CC BY-SA 3.0

Core idea

Aviation economy + TOD new city

Why it matters

Southwest China growth pole expansion

Description

Chengdu Eastern New Area, designated by Sichuan Province and the Chengdu municipality in 2020, is a state-led new city east of the Longquan Mountains, planned around the new Tianfu International Airport. It projects an 'aviation economy' growth pole combining airport-linked industries, advanced manufacturing and services with transit-oriented development along new metro and intercity rail lines, and forms a key piece of the Chengdu–Chongqing 'twin-city economic circle' strategy for developing western China.

Significance

The project exemplifies the continuing Chinese model of large-scale, infrastructure-first new-area building as an instrument of national regional policy, extending the lineage of Pudong and Xiong'an to the interior. It is significant in debates about aerotropolis planning, the risks of over-supplied new towns, and Chengdu's promoted image of 'park city' planning that seeks to marry rapid growth-pole construction with landscape and liveability rhetoric.

What shaped it

Sources

Open it on the interactive timeline →
hub.toekom.st — History of Urbanism · an interactive timeline of 850 planned cities across 6,000 years.