In April, spring is full of spring, and the willows sprout.
In the start-up area of Xiong'an New Area, Hebei Province, there are many crane towers, roaring machines, and the construction site of key projects is in full swing, and tens of thousands of builders are working in an orderly manner.
From the main road of the city, a number of headquarters projects are lined up, the "Golden Reed" of the Sinochem headquarters building is growing, the China Star Network headquarters project is about to be completed, the main structure of the Xiong'an Sports Center project is capped, the surrounding supporting Xiong'an University Park Library is being completed, and the Xiong'an Xuanwu Hospital has been officially opened......
One foot by inch, one stroke at a time, the Xiong'an New Area, which has been submerged, is steadily and rapidly changing.
When you come to Xiong'an, many people will mention one thing to you: Xiong'an, in fact, has built three "cities".
This is not a lie. For the first time, Xiong'an New Area has realized the "joint planning, joint construction and common growth" of the three "cities" of "Xiong'an on the ground", "Xiong'an underground" and "Xiong'an on the cloud", and has become a magical city written on the land of China in the new era.
A "city" on the ground: the beginning of its form
In the foundation pit with a diameter of nearly 100 meters in front of you, a total of 56 steel structure columns are erected high, two tower cranes stand, and the building of "golden reed" shape is beginning to show its true face.
This is located in the start-up area of the Sinochem headquarters building project, its site is located in the start-up area of the headquarters area 001, the building design structure height of 150 meters, a total construction area of 114,900 square meters, 31 floors above ground, 3 floors underground, will be one of the urban landmarks in the start-up area after completion.
Photo by Liu Guangyu at the Sinochem Headquarters Building in Xiong'an New Area in February 2024
"The project is based on the 'golden reed', the appearance is simple, open and elegant, and its posture of growing from the ground and the shape of the clusters are inspired by the scenery of Baiyangdian, highlighting the characteristics of regional culture, implying growth and prosperity. The person in charge of the project of the Sinochem headquarters building said.
Even during the Spring Festival in 2024, nearly 300 managers and workers on the site will still be on the front line to ensure that work will not be stopped during the Spring Festival...... Under the polishing of countless details and the watering of sweat, the "Golden Reed" is growing stronger and stronger.
"I am from Qingdao, and since I came to the project in November 2021, I have been with my family for less and more, and I have no time to go back for the Chinese New Year. The project leader said.
The efforts of the builders have supported the height of "Xiong'an on the ground". As far as the eye can see, not far from the Sinochem headquarters building project, the University Park Library in Xiong'an New Area has also been quietly completed.
"As a library, it is designed with the intention of ancient simple scrolls, reflecting the charm of traditional Chinese culture. Liu Sibo, the production manager of the library project of China Railway Construction Engineering Xiong'an University Park, said that the bottom design of the building is like an open book, supporting the simple and atmospheric main volume, and the doors and windows of the building are using adjustable external sunshade shuttle-type louver system, "It looks like a page of bookmarks, which can be automatically adjusted to create a comfortable and green indoor light environment." ”
For the first time, the library has the functions of both a city library and a university library, with a designed collection of more than 1.5 million books and 3,500 reading seats, which is not only open to the teachers and students of colleges and universities, but also serves the surrounding communities. At present, the project is in the stage of finalization and mechanical and electrical commissioning.
Not far to the north, a group of tall buildings with circular steel structures outside and inside also come into view, which is the Xiong'an Sports Center, which has attracted much attention.
Xiong'an Sports Center Stadium under construction Photo by Gao Xinggui
Hao Wenjia of the Sports Center of Xiong'an Group Public Service Management Co., Ltd. said that the Xiong'an Sports Center project includes three main buildings: a swimming pool, a stadium and a gymnasium, which can meet the requirements of hosting international individual events and domestic comprehensive events after completion, and is an important supporting building complex for sports activities in Xiong'an New Area in the future.
"As shown on the planning map in front of us, our stadium roof adopts a variety of structural forms, which are combined to form a unique fifth façade, reflecting the classical elements of the traditional Chinese 'round sky and round place'......" Xu Shaofeng, a member of the doctoral innovation studio of the Xiong'an Sports Center project of Beijing Urban Construction Group, said that each building of the stadium has introduced an aerial viewing corridor, which can overlook the bustling city scene on the south side and the green landscape park on the north side.
The survey found that the functions of the key areas of Xiong'an New Area are becoming clearer, not only the centralized undertaking area dominated by the start-up area, but also the industrial development and support relief area led by the Zanggang area, and the Rongdong, Rongxi and Xiongdong areas dominated by resettlement and residential services, each with a clear division of labor and integrated with each other.
It is not difficult to see that the urban meridians, pulses and textures of Xiong'an New Area are growing and gradually improving one by one, radiating unprecedented urban vitality.
"A few years ago, when I first came here, it was still a vast and wild open space, and I often couldn't find the project department when I went out. Now a large number of modern buildings, the road network is becoming more and more perfect, and the prototype of the city is gradually appearing in front of us. Li Zhongyi, the project manager of China Construction Third Bureau, who participated in the "Huaxufu" commercial housing project, sighed.
A "city" underground: there is no cave
Walking in the Rongxi area of Xiong'an New Area, there is a new atmosphere everywhere.
Brand new high-rise buildings are lined up, and the residents who have moved back have happily moved in, with complete supporting facilities such as primary schools, kindergartens, convenience service centers, and supermarkets...... Why can't I see manhole covers on the streets, and I can't see power lines when I look up?
What makes the "big city disease" disappear? The mystery lies underground.
"First underground, then above ground, rational development and utilization of underground space is an important concept for the planning and construction of Xiong'an New Area. The underground comprehensive pipe gallery is vividly called the "urban artery" and "underground lifeline", and it is an important infrastructure to ensure the operation of the city.
The underground comprehensive pipe gallery allows various municipal pipelines such as electricity, communications, gas, heating, and water supply to "live" into the "collective dormitory", and is equipped with maintenance ports and hoisting ports, so as to achieve integrated intelligent operation and maintenance management through unified design, unified management, and unified monitoring.
In the underground comprehensive pipe gallery in the Rongxi area, various municipal pipelines are divided into their own "rooms", arranged in an orderly manner, and perform their duties. The passage in the pipe gallery is full of various monitoring and perception equipment, such as combustible gas detectors, fiber optic telephones, high-definition cameras, temperature and humidity sensors...... These sensing equipment covers gas cabins, integrated water tanks, telecommunications cabins, and high-voltage cabins, like a "sentinel", 24-hour real-time, all-round monitoring of the "pulse" of the underground comprehensive pipe gallery, and at the same time, combined with the Internet of Things, big data, cloud computing and other scientific and technological means, to build a smart operation and maintenance platform for the pipe gallery, and install a "clairvoyant" and "smart brain" for the pipe gallery, which can both see and calculate, and ensure the intelligent and safe operation of the pipe corridor.
At the same time, manual inspection has also provided a "double insurance" for the safety of this "urban artery". The operation and maintenance personnel of the comprehensive pipe corridor test the gas composition and concentration in the comprehensive pipe corridor every day, and they laughingly call themselves "underground workers".
Staff work in the monitoring room of the Rongdong underground pipe gallery in Xiong'an (taken on March 30, 2023) Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Zhu Xudong
The underground comprehensive pipe gallery can not only solve the problems of "spider webs" and "road zippers" in traditional cities, improve the appearance of the city, but also facilitate the maintenance and repair in the later stage, save costs, and do not need to carry out road renovation at every turn, so that citizens and pedestrians are unbearable.
The construction of the underground comprehensive pipe gallery has laid a solid foundation for Xiong'an, a thousand-year-old city, and also provided infinite possibilities for Xiong'an, a city of the future.
A "city" on the cloud: twin co-construction
In addition to the "visible" above-ground buildings and underground pipe corridors, as an important part of the Xiong'an digital twin city, the scale of the "invisible" digital pipe corridors is also growing simultaneously. Up to now, the new area has completed more than 130 kilometers of digital twin models of comprehensive pipe corridors.
For the first time in the history of urban construction in mainland China, Xiong'an New Area has realized the simultaneous planning and construction of digital cities and physical cities, and has moderately advanced the layout of intelligent infrastructure. To put it simply, every building, every road, every pipe, and even every steel beam in the real city will form a digital model with it on the network platform.
With models and data, how to connect millions of neural nodes in series, systematically analyze and process them, and apply them to the process of urban construction and development management?
The answer is Xiong'an's "city brain" - Xiong'an Urban Computing Center, which is an important carrier of the digital twin city operation service system in the new district.
Photo by Liu Guangyu, Xiong'an Urban Computing Center
This mysterious "city brain" is hidden in a square building next to Yuerong Park, located at the junction of Yuerong Park and Xiong'an Business Service Center, and is also a transitional area where nature and city are blended and infiltrated. From a distance, the reflection of light and shadow in the water surface of the lake and the lake surface merge, forming a beautiful, bright and aura "Xiong'an Eye".
The young and beautiful female narrator narrated that "the east façade of the building resembles the Zhaozhou Bridge, a thousand-year-old bridge, which is the 'digital bridge' of Xiong'an, connecting the thousand-year-old capital of Beijing in the north and the future city of Xiong'an in the south, implying that Xiong'an undertakes the major mission of Beijing's non-capital functions." ”
Following into the "City Brain", a sense of science and technology immediately came to the face, and a huge electronic screen was divided into four sections: comprehensive data platform, Internet of Things platform, video network platform and CIM basic platform...... Gathered here is nearly 10 billion pieces of urban operation data in Xiong'an New Area.
Through big data analysis, it can provide technical support for smart education, smart transportation and smart communities, and through innovation-driven and smart empowerment, the future of urban management and residents' lives will be more convenient.
"In the past, five or six cameras were installed on a light pole, but now relying on digital road construction, multi-functional information poles can achieve multi-function on one pole, with both cameras and sensors, and all kinds of data will be 'caught in one net', which improves the efficiency of urban operation. Yao Kaixuan, assistant general manager of Xiongan Group Digital City Technology Co., Ltd., said.
He said that at present, the total construction of digital roads in the new area has been expanded to 500 kilometers. In the future, after the intelligent networked bus and the Xiong'an digital road system work together, under the command of the "city brain", a new intelligent transportation system with interconnection of people, vehicles, roads and things, real-time perception, instantaneous response and intelligent decision-making will be formed.
It's much more than that. "5G + Beidou" positioning and navigation technology covers more than 200,000 square meters of underground parking lots in Rongdong area; Jingxiong Expressway has built a comprehensive road network management system based on big data, shortening the detection of abnormal traffic incidents on the road surface to less than 30 seconds...... Digital technology is making Xiong'an more and more "smart".
"Modernization is not defined by high-rise buildings, and digital cities are built simultaneously with real cities. In Yao's view, digital twins are becoming a reality, and the future has arrived.
"I have never seen such a city plan", "I have never seen the integrated planning and construction of the 'three cities' on the ground, underground, and 'cloud'......
Along the way in Xiong'an, there is no shortage of such comments and admiration. Xiong'an New Area, an emerging city, is taking the development path that no one has walked in human history, expanding the development space of Chinese-style modernization, and is steadily moving forward towards the construction of a "city of the future" that is "wonderful and desirable".
Source: Xinhua News Agency (Hu Wen, Research Group, Xiong'an Research Center, Lookout Think Tank)