Planning map of the canal core area of southeast Beijing's Tongzhou District as of 2015. [Photo: dayuntongzhou.com]

Beijing has officially announced its Tongzhou District as a municipal subsidiary administrative center.

While the move has long been anticipated, it was officially confirmed at a meeting of the Communist Party of China's (CPC) Beijing Municipal Committee yesterday.

The new subsidiary administrative center not only functions as a contribution to the national Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei integrated development plan, it will also shoulder the responsibility to ease Beijing's "urban ills" such as overpopulation, traffic congestion,and air pollution.

Beijing Municipal Committee says it will gradually shift the city's administrative functions, along with some commercial and cultural activities, to its suburbs, including Tongzhong, Shunyi and Yizhuang, among other areas.

Authorities aim to move 15% of city dwellers out of the city center and cap population in Beijing at 23 million by 2020. Building a comprehensive suburban rail network and strengthening social services in these surburban areas are added to the agenda as well. These measures are deemed by the authorities as the first steps towards guiding more people out of the overcrowded city center.

Before the decision was announced, anticipation of Tongzhou as a subsidiary administrative center already drove housing prices in some areas there up by around 5000 Yuan, or approximately 805 US dollars, per square meter. It is expected that the official decision will further increase real estate value in the area.

Beijing plans to build 11 subsidiary administrative centers around its city center. In addition to Tongzhou District, located in southeastern Beijing, Shunyi, and Yizhuang are also the main focuses of the plan.