A future city in the making

Three years ago, when Xiong'an New Area was first established, the region was underdeveloped with low economic growth. But it quickly evolved into the world's largest construction plant with a strong governmental investment, attracting workers from all over the country to devote themselves to the building of a "city of the future, a millennium plan".

Its importance was stressed in the Party leadership's proposals for formulating the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) for National Economic and Social Development and the Long-Range Objectives Through the Year 2035 on Nov 3. The Party's Central Committee demanded greater resolution in regional coordinated development and high-quality economic development of the Xiong'an New Area.

"It is hard to make a connection between the current landscape of Xiong'an where everything just got started and is under construction, with the world's most avant-garde 5G technology. But the latest technology has already been applied to the very earliest development stage of Xiong'an," said Wang Zhicheng, a senior manager and colleague of Yang.

The company scheduled a roof-sealing ceremony of one of its buildings on Nov 9, to give a sense of ritual to a monotonous and tiring life in the construction site.

Shi Zhaoyang, the project manager for steel construction, was in charge of hosting the ceremony. A native of Hebei, Shi chose to return to his home province after graduating with a master's degree from Chongqing University five years ago.