80 years ago, the Japanese planned to build a new urban area in Beijing. Unexpectedly, they chose this place.

It has been almost two years since Tongzhou officially became Beijing’s sub-city center, but I have yet to see the most authoritative explanation as to why Tongzhou was chosen.

Some people say that Tongzhou is the only district and county in Beijing that borders Tianjin and Hebei at the same time. It is the core area of ​​the entire Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and is conducive to promoting the integrated and coordinated development of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. However, some people counter that choosing Tongzhou is The decision was made 20 years ago. At that time, there was no concept of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei integration.

However, if you open the satellite map, you can clearly see that there are mountains to the north and west of Beijing, and an airport needs to be built in the south, and the foundation is not very good, leaving only open space in the east.

About 80 years ago, there was a plan to build a new Beijing outside the central city. The choice at that time was not Tongzhou, but western Beijing. This plan was the "Beijing" formulated by the Japanese. Urban Plan Outline”.

On July 29, 1937, after more than 20 days of resistance, Peiping fell. The next day, the Peking City Local Maintenance Committee was established. On October 13, the Japanese claimed that Peking would be renamed Beijing from that day on. The Nationalist Government certainly did not recognize this (hereinafter still referred to as Peking). At the same time, Toshihisa Sato was hired as an urban planning consultant. This person had served as the Director of Public Works and Director of Urban Construction of the Puppet Manchukuo Harbin Special City. The Japanese ambitiously plan to build Peiping into the "Tokyo of China" and find a better central city for them to establish a new order in Greater East Asia. Beijing is obviously a better choice than Pyongyang and Changchun.

In April 1938, Toshihisa Sato and Keiichi Yamazaki proposed the "Beijing Urban Plan Outline". On June 4, 1939, the North China Real Estate Company, a subsidiary of North China Development Co., Ltd., was established to undertake the construction of the new city. District, on October 6 of the same year, the puppet Construction General Administration established the Beijing Municipal Construction Engineering Bureau. On August 17, 1940, the bureau formulated a detailed urban construction plan and confidential plans.

This plan first faces three problems:

1. Peiping’s population is increasing. Just like today, there were more and more permanent residents at that time. Of course, it was not only Chinese but also Japanese. Before the Anti-Japanese War, there were only more than 2,000 Japanese in Peking. By 1941, the number soared to nearly 70,000. The total population of Peiping also increased from 1.53 million to 1.79 million. The Japanese are expected to reach 2.5 million in 20 years. . Compared with today, this number is only a fraction, but at that time, Peiping mainly referred to the main urban area within the city wall, which is now the place within the second ring road, and at most the surrounding suburbs. Moreover, there were no high-rise buildings at that time, and most of the residential buildings were It is a courtyard house with a very low floor area ratio;

2. Peiping’s road facilities are imperfect, which affects economic and military development. Even though it has been the capital for so many years, the roads in the city are still mainly dirt roads. At that time, there was a saying that satirized Peiping's roads: "On a sunny day, there are three feet of dirt, and when it rains, there is a street of mud." It was only after the Western powers established the embassy area in Dongjiaomin Lane. Gradually introduce modern roads. By 1929, the Peking Communist Party had built 96.7 kilometers of gravel roads and 8.27 kilometers of asphalt roads, but these roads were concentrated near the embassy area, in prosperous areas, and in wealthy residential areas;

3 .Chinese and Japanese people live together, causing a lot of friction. With the influx of a large number of Japanese, they inevitably lived with the Chinese. The ratio of Japanese to Chinese expanded from 1:770 before the war to about 1:30. Japanese can be seen almost everywhere in Peiping. Naturally, it is impossible for them to treat the Chinese as equals, and it is even less possible for the Chinese not to hold hatred, so conflicts are inevitable. In order to maintain a stable order, the Japanese want to avoid mixed living and reduce friction.

The plan is to position Peiping as a political and military center and a special tourist city, so there is no plan to renovate the old city on a large scale. The Japanese also use this method in their own country. For example, Kyoto also retains the old city.

They set three basic principles:

1. Maintain the original history and culture and develop industry and transportation;

2. Make use of the old city and use a gradual approach to reduce resistance;

3. Limit population density and develop the central area and suburbs equally.

The plan is divided into nine parts:

1. Urban planning area;

2. Market plan and new market plan: ① market planning area; ② New market plan: new market in the western suburbs, new market in the eastern suburbs, and Tongxian factory site;

3. Regional system: exclusive residential area, residential area;

4. Regional system: green areas, scenic areas, beautiful areas;

5. Transportation facilities: roads, railways, canals, airports;

6. Water and sewerage: waterways and sewers;

7. Other public facilities: parks, sports fields, squares, cemeteries, racecourses, central unloading markets, slaughterhouses;

8. Urban protection facilities;

9. Reserve.

Kujo seems very complicated. In fact, the most important thing is the new market plan, which is to build a new city outside the old city. This is consistent with the Japanese approach in Changchun.

The new market is divided into two parts, one is the eastern suburbs new market and the other is the western suburbs new market. Dongjiao New Market will build factories between 1.5 kilometers and 3 kilometers east of Guangqumenwai, as well as supporting facilities such as railways, docks, and warehouses.

The focus of this project is the new markets in the western suburbs. The new market in the western suburbs starts from Gongzhufen in the east, Babaoshan in the west, Fengtai in the south and Xiyuan in the north. It covers an area of ​​about 65 square kilometers and the main land is about 30 square kilometers. A straight line is drawn from Chang'an Street in the city to the west, crossing the city to the east of Moshikou of Xishan Mountain and at the foot of Babao Mountain; and then a straight line is drawn from the Paiyun Hall in the Summer Palace on Wanshou Mountain to the south, extending to Marco Polo Bridge. The two lines are The intersection point is the center point of the new Beijing downtown area, that is, Xingya Road (Wukesong Road, Fengtai Road) is the central axis.

The new market in the western suburbs is used to build government agencies, residential areas, commercial streets, parks and even golf courses. Of course, only Japanese people are allowed to live there.

Since the Japanese were mired in the war and were unable to take care of themselves after the Pacific War, the implementation of this plan can be imagined. In the spring of 1946 after the war, the Nationalist Government made a The investigation still yielded some practical results.

The western suburbs new market has completed the land acquisition of the first phase of the planned area of ​​14.7 square kilometers. 90,800 meters of roads have been built, including 2 asphalt concrete roads, 8,700 meters long, 3 asphalt gravel roads, 3,600 meters long, 1,900 meters of pebble roads, and 67,900 meters of dirt roads, accounting for 70% of the planned road length in the district; 20,739 water supply pipes have been laid meters, distributed near Fuxing Street, Wanshou Road, Yongding Road, and Cuiwei Road; one nursery, hospital, sports ground, park, and post office; to complete 581 houses with a construction area of ​​67,083 square meters and a land area of ​​862,042 square meters. Most of them are Japanese-style tile-roofed houses, and most of them are Japanese companies and institutions.

The Dongjiao Industrial Zone has completed all land acquisition of the planned area of ​​2.67 square kilometers in the first and second phases, and has built 9 factories. The remaining 11 planned factories are all vacant land, including Beijing Beer and North China Tobacco. , Daxin Paper, and Beijing Forging. There are 22,240 meters of dirt roads and 18,000 meters of gravel roads.

In February 1942, 800 Japanese households with 2,100 people lived in the western suburbs, concentrated near Wanshou Road and Yongding Road.

However, the vast majority of important companies in Japan are still located in the old city, especially in Dongjiaominxiang, Wangfujing, Dongsi, Dongdan, Beichizi, Zongbu Hu and other places.

To this day, some Japanese believe that this plan is a technology export to mainland China and that the Chinese are the beneficiaries. This is a shameless whitewash of a war of aggression.

As for why the Japanese are so optimistic about the west side of the old city, there is no clear answer. Some scholars say it is probably because the western suburbs are surrounded by mountains and rivers and have better feng shui. But this Feng Shui obviously cannot help the Japanese.

References:

Sun Donghu "Beiping Urban Planning and Implementation during the Eight Years of Occupation"

Qi Feng "LT during the Japanese-Puppet Period; Beijing Urban Planning Outline gt;-A preliminary study on the causes and nature of the occurrence》